News
The people’s paper ISSUE NO. 1865
1 - 7 April 2021
AXARQUIA - COSTA TROPICAL • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
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MASK LAW CHANGE
SPAIN’S central government has introduced a new law surround‐ ing face masks making them mandatory in all public spaces in a move that could pave the way for safer tourism. The law was changed yester‐ day to remove the exemption in a previous regulation which meant masks did not have to be worn outdoors if people could stay at least 1.5 metres apart from each other. Now masks will have to be worn in all public spaces even if people can stay apart from each other, which could include beach‐ es and around pools. While the new law will affect many areas of Spain, Andalucia has had a similar law in effect since last July, meaning that ev‐ eryone in public spaces, except those who are exempt for medi‐ cal or other reasons, already have to wear a mask.
MASK WEARING: Could be law on the beach and by a swimming pool.
Andalucia’s law had made an exemption for those lying down near beaches and swimming
pools however, while Spain’s new law does not, meaning mask wearing is now mandatory even
on the beach across Spain unless a similar exemption is put in place by the government.
Animal Rescue
OFFICERS from the Guardia Civil in Motril have rescued five kit‐ tens from a bin. The kittens are now being cared for by an animal rescue as‐ sociation after being rescued by police from the Guardia Civil in Motril. Officers from the Guardia Civil’s environmental group, Seprona, rescued the five kittens from a bin in Velez de Benaudalla after a woman allegedly dumped them there. The incident was reported to police after a neighbour heard mewing coming from the bins, causing officers from Motril to come out and search for the kit‐ tens. A 79‐year‐old woman is re‐ portedly now under investigation for crimes against animals. The woman allegedly told police her cat had had a litter of kittens that
SAVED: Five kittens were rescued from a bin.
she did not want. Officers have now handed over the animals to rescue association SOS Animales Salobreña to be cared for. The news comes after the Guardia Civil in Granada opened an investigation into a 63‐year‐old
man into a crime of suspected ani‐ mal abuse, following the alleged neglect of a pony in Almuñecar. The Motril Seprona unit of the Guardia Civil had received reports of a pony on a farm in Almuñecar with ‘obvious signs of abandon‐ ment,’ and upon visiting the re‐
ported location, the officers found a pony whose hooves had grown and were preventing him from walking. The officers returned to the farm the next day with a vet who said the animal had symptoms of laminitis. The owner told the Guardia Civil officers that he had not cut the pony’s hooves for more than a year because he had called the farrier many times and he had not appeared, but later on he said that he did not have sufficient money to meet the veterinary expenses that the animal needed. The Seprona officers contacted the Andalucian Horse Rescue Cen‐ tre in Malaga to take the pony into care at their facilities, and the cen‐ tre has given the pony the veteri‐ nary treatment that the animal re‐ quired.
Current fines for being found not wearing a mask begin at €100 and can rise to between €601 and
€30,000 for more serious cases. The move could pave the way for safer tourism this summer in popular coastal areas, including towns like Nerja, Malaga and Marbella which attract an influx of visitors to their beaches each year. Nevertheless, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, ap‐ peared on Wednesday March 31 after the Interterritorial Council to explain that they are working on how to “develop a technical crite‐ ria for the application of the law.” “I hope that between now and the next Interterritorial Council we can find space to be able to apply this law, to do so in the most harmonised way possible and in the most contextualised way possible,” she said. “The mask is obligatory, but we have to study whether the law leaves us room for manoeuvre,” she added in response to the insistence of questions from journalists.