In its continuous effort to reduce the spread of coronavirus, of Spain plans to limit the number of people celebrating Christmas for each household. Spain Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Nov. 25 that the government plans to cut down that number down to a maximum of six persons.
The government decided to implement added restrictions for the Christmas holidays after Spain recorded a second wave of COVID-19 outbreak recently. On Wednesday, the government received an update from the health ministry disclosing the 10,222 new novel coronavirus infection cases, Salem Radio Network News reported.
The number of deaths spiked to 537 on Tuesday, although it went down to 369 the following day. The Spain health ministry has now recorded a total of 44,037 fatalities since the COVID-19 epidemic spread across the globe.
Spain has now has a 1.6 million total tallied COVID-19 cases. The country holds the number two spot on the nations with the highest coronavirus infections in Western Europe. France has recorded the highest number of cases in the region so far.
In a news conference, Sanchez assured that the decision to limit the Christmas celebration to a maximum of six persons per household went through experts' study and advice.
"It is a number which health professionals, scientists have told us is sufficiently rigorous and restrictive to prevent another surge in infections," the Prime Minister said in the presence of Giuseppe Conte in Mallorca, his Italian counterpart.
The Prime Minister intends to implement the order in the entire Spanish region. However, Catalonia and Madrid regional health chiefs are currently negotiating to allow people in their respective regions to celebrate Christmas observing a maximum of ten people per household. There are still no updates about the approval or decline on the regional health chiefs' less stringent limit advocacy, however.
Meanwhile, a negotiation between the regional authorities and the central government started rolling out on the next round of COVID-19 restrictions. They are hoping that they could come up with the next set of plans on how to lower if not completely eliminate the number of added coronavirus cases.
Health Minister Salvador Illa confirmed that she still hasn't reached a final agreement with the regional health chiefs although she is anticipating progress on their talks in one week.
"We want to produce a set of recommendations that will generate the maximum possible consensus," said Illa.
Meanwhile, a state in the US recently implemented an almost similar COVID-19 restriction order, but for another family celebration. New Mexico limited the number of Thanksgiving Day celebration to a maximum of 5 in every household.
However, knowing how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham admitted that it is almost impossible to expect people to abide by the rules. She said in an interview that no one can enforce a rule that limits Thanksgiving Day celebrations to only a few people. Yet she said she still hopes that people will take heed of the order.
