The Barcelona wall is coming down. It was a demand that was virtually unanimous from those most affected - many people being inconvenienced every day. And finally, the wheels of the decision process have turned. The Spanish government has accepted the Catalan government's request, urged by dozens of municipal councils in the metropolitan area, to lift the current isolation of the city of Barcelona from its huge metropolitan area.
For practical purposes, this means that the wall - metaphorical - that until now separated the municipality from the rest of its surroundings will come down and mobility will again be allowed throughout most of the agglomerated health region of Barcelona, which will again unite Barcelona city and most of its metropolitan region, stretching north and south along the coast, and inland.
When the Sánchez government announced its coronavirus de-escalation process, at the end of April, the Catalan authorities requested that the territorial units used for deciding phase changes should be the Catalan health regions and not the four provinces of Catalonia. For these purposes, the health region of Barcelona was subdivided into three areas: the city, which includes the ten districts that make up municipal Barcelona; the northern metropolitan area, which stretches north-east to Sant Celoni and Arenys and inland to beyond Terrassa; and the southern metropolitan area, which runs south-west from the Baix Llobregat county.
But note that, precisely in this southern metropolitan health region, one important exception remains. The farthest south-west parts of the Barcelona metropolis - the Garraf and Alt Penedès counties - are still cut off from the Barcelona free-for-all because they are moving ahead of the rest of greater Barcelona. While most of the urban and suburban region remains in Phase 1, from Monday, these two areas - more rural for the most part - will advance to Phase 2. The Catalan government thus requested that the territories be left out of the rest.
Thus, while the good news for most of metropolitan Barcelona is the easing of mobility restrictions applied in Phase 1, the majority of Catalonia's territory will be in Phase 2 by Monday June 1st. Lleida health region is the exception, and will remain in Phase 1 for another week along with greater Barcelona, due to a resurgence in the number of Covid-19 cases in this western Catalonia health district.
To find out which Catalan health region a municipality belongs to, and which phase of the process it is in, the Catalan health service website provides this page.
GUIDE | Coronavirus de-escalation: which phase am I in and what can I do?
MAP | Coronavirus infections in Catalonia by municipalities and neighborhoods
GRAPHS & DATA | Latest coronavirus statistics for Catalonia and Spain