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In the end, it will be far from café para todos - not the same anti-Covid medicine for every part of Spain. Health minister Salvador Illa has accepted the more cautious request by Catalonia, allowing a few of its health districts to pass from phase 0 to phase 1 of the Spanish government's deconfinement plan next Monday. He has ruled similarly for Castilla y León. On the other hand, the Spanish ministry's panel of experts has imposed its own caution on four other autonomous communities (Madrid, Castilla la Mancha, the Valencian Country and Andalusia) which requested to make the jump to phase 1 as entire territorial units and have been partially or totally rejected. The result, a patchwork map of the Spanish state, undertaking coronavirus de-escalation at, for the moment, two different velocities.          

The Catalan government's proposal, as minister Illa told the on-line meeting of the Interterritorial Health Council this Friday, has been accepted. Thus, three out of the nine Catalan health areas will move to Phase 1 on Monday: the two in Tarragona province - Terres de l'Ebre, and Camp de Tarragona - and the mountainous district of north-western Catalonia, Alt Pirineu i l'Aran. The rest of Catalonia, which does not yet have such promising figures, will continue in phase zero of the de-escalation for at least another week. These are six health areas: Barcelona, ​​Northern Metropolitan, Southern Metropolitan, Central Catalonia, Lleida and Girona.

Beyond Catalonia, all of Spain's autonomous communities except Castilla y León had asked for all of their provinces to jump to the next phase, but many of these proposals have been amended. The clearest case is that of Madrid, which had requested to move to Phase One, despite being the main focus of the pandemic in Spain. The health ministry rejected the request. According to sources in the Community of Madrid, the Spanish government "endorses" Madrid's care capacity but "is inclined to wait for the primary detection system to be more consolidated before the change of phase". The regional government will ask for a change of status again for the following Monday, May 18th.

In the Valencian Country, 10 of the 24 health departments move to Phase 1, despite the fact that the Valencian government had requested that the lockdown be eased for the whole territory. The patchwork effect created by the relatively small Valencian health districts (seen on the map below) is even more pronounced in Castilla y León, in the north-west of Spain: here, 26 of the 47 basic health zones were given the okay to move to Phase 1 - which in this case, was exactly as the autonomous government of the region had proposed. 

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Not all the five provinces of Castilla la Mancha have passed the filter either: Cuenca and Guadalajara will go through, but Toledo, Ciudad Real and Albacete will continue for the time being in phase 0. In Andalusia, six provinces change to Phase 1, but Granada and Malaga continue in Phase 0.   

In the Balearic Islands, Formentera had already been in phase 1 since last Monday. Next Monday, the other three Mediterreanean islands will be added: Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. 

In addition to the Balearic Islands, the territories that go through completely to phase 1 are the Basque Country, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, Navarra, Aragon, Extremadura, Murcia, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla. About half of the Spanish population will be in phase 1 from Monday.

What is permitted in phase 1?

It will not be until tomorrow Saturday that the specific details of what is permitted in phase 1 will be known, through a ministerial order published in the official state gazette. Among the activities allowed are: social gatherings with a maximum of 10 people, the reopening of small retail premises (less than 400 sq. m), the reopening of markets to 45% of capacity and bar and restaurant terraces to 50% of their normal capacity. Also, with limitations, museums and libraries will be able to open. As well, the health minister has announced that autonomous communities will be able to adapt the time slots for going for walks to their "climatic circumstances".

When will this be reviewed?

Every week, requests from the autonomous communities requesting a change of de-escalation phase will be considered. The only limitation is that each territory must remain for at least two weeks in each phase. Thus, the territories that won't change to Phase 1 next Monday could do so the following Monday. The minister Salvador Illa has said that next Monday they will already be able to present new proposals and the decision will be made at the end of the week.

MAP | Coronavirus infections in Catalonia by municipalities and neighborhoods

GRAPHS & DATA | Latest coronavirus statistics for Catalonia and Spain