BARCELONA (Reuters) – The beaches were crowded across Catalonia on Saturday, with the good spring weather attracting sun lovers, despite government warnings to avoid violating COVID-19 restrictions.
In Barcelona, Tarragona and other popular cities along the coast of northeastern Spain, crowds flocked to the beaches, some without masks or ignoring social detachment.
On a popular beach near the center of Barcelona, dozens of partygoers danced on Friday, some violating regulations created to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, police said on Saturday.
The improvised party took place on Barceloneta beach and the police said they had warned revelers that they were violating health regulations.
“Barcelona is the perfect place to party, to drink, but this is a big problem – the police – they are preventing people from having fun”, a British partygoer who just gave his first name Liam, 32, and who was wearing a mask, he told Reuters.
Elsewhere, police raided an illegal party at a bar in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, near Barcelona, on Friday, and fined 33 people for violating COVID-19 restrictions, tweeted Mossos d’Escuadra, the Catalan regional police.
Meetings with more than six people in public areas are prohibited in Catalonia and offenders can face fines of 300 to 600 euros ($ 350 to $ 700), police said.
“Our policemen warn people where there are large groups of people that they are breaking the restrictions and sometimes, if they don’t put on masks or move in, they can be fined,” said a spokesman for the Catalan regional police. He did not say if anyone was fined for the Barceloneta party.
Miquel Samper, Catalonia’s regional interior minister, told RAC1 radio on Saturday that people should wear masks if they mingled with other people on the beach, but they didn’t have to do that if they were sunning themselves or swimming in the sea – guidance that differs from legislation national.
Catalonia is one of several Spanish regions to challenge a law introduced on Wednesday that requires people to wear masks outdoors, regardless of the safety distance of 1.5 meters being observed.
After mounting criticism, the Spanish government said the mask law would be revised, but did not say when the revision would take place.
($ 1 = 0.8502 euros)
Graham Keeley reportingEditing by David Holmes