On May 11, the state of alarm de-escalation in Mallorca allowed a very limited restart to bar and restaurant activity. Eight months on and the bars and restaurants will be closed, except those providing home delivery and takeaway.
This measure is due to last fifteen days and it is the latest in what has been a series of restrictions applied to the hospitality sector. On December 13, the Balearic government ordered that bars and restaurants could not have customers inside and that they had to close their terraces at 6pm on Fridays and Saturdays and on the eves of holidays - Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve were what the government then had in mind. A few days later, and the 6pm order applied to every day of the week. From Wednesday, not even the terraces can open.
There was some surprise at the government's Monday announcement postponing measures for 24 hours. Queues had formed outside stores that were due to have to close from Tuesday. As it turned out, Monday wasn't the last day before non-essential stores of 700 square metres or more have to close.
There was heavy traffic on roads leading to shopping centres. The traffic directorate reported jams on the MA-19 heading to FAN Mallorca Shopping and on the MA-1110 Valldemossa road for Carrefour and Ocimax.
Mariano Rodríguez, director of institutional relations at Carrefour Baleares, said that there were more shoppers than usual for a Monday. He attributed this to confusing information and the government's restrictions, which have created "a mass panic that is unreal".
There was more traffic than usual heading for the Mallorca Fashion Outlet and Alcampo, although the traffic directorate didn't report jams as such.
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Nigel, although I see your point, but it is SALES time, so bargain hunting. And who wants to take away that from the average Spaniard.
Except Nigel it won't be 2 weeks. It was also 2 weeks initially last March and look how that turned out!!
What is it that people really can't live without for two weeks. The mind boggles. Shoes, clothes, electronics or is it just taking back all those unwanted Christmas gifts?