MADRID, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Madrid High Court on Thursday ruled that it would not ratify the coronavirus restrictions that had been put into effect in the Autonomous Community of Madrid by Spain's central government.
The court ruled that the restrictions on mobility in Madrid and nine other municipalities in the region of over 100,000 inhabitants infringed on citizens' fundamental rights.
The ruling does not affect the regulations limiting bars and restaurants to working at 50 percent capacity and obliging them to not accept customers after 10 p.m., or limiting social gatherings to a maximum of six people.
It remains is uncertain what will happen after this ruling, which is another chapter in a public disagreement between the central government and the Madrid regional authority. Madrid would like to return to its former plan of limiting mobility in selected neighborhoods rather than in the capital city as a whole.
Reacting to the court decision, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that his government would put "all of the measures and instruments on the table." He refused to rule out imposing a 'State of Alarm' in Madrid in order to prevent people from leaving the capital.
According to the Health Ministry, 2,325 of the 5,075 new cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in Spain on Wednesday were in Madrid. The city had seen 15,831 cases in the previous seven days, with 21.3 percent of the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests carried out in the region on Oct. 4 coming back positive.
It is also uncertain how the ruling will affect other municipalities. According to Spanish TV network RTVE, over 530 municipalities, including the cities of Leon and Palencia (in central Spain) currently have restrictions on mobility in place due to the high incidence of COVID-19. Enditem