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(Recasts with Pamplona mayor, Madrid regional leader, Brazil)
MADRID, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Spain's San Fermin festival, which
attracts tourists from all over the world for the running of the
bulls through the streets of Pamplona, will be cancelled for the
second year in a row because of COVID-19, the regional head said
on Tuesday.
But amid much disagreement and handwringing across Spain
over how strict pandemic restrictions should be, Pamplona's
mayor was quick to say no decision had yet been made.
"An international festival like San Fermin, in which
millions of people come to Navarra, won't be possible," Maria
Chivite, president of Navarra's regional administration, said.
The local Diario de Navarra newspaper quoted Pamplona Mayor
Enrique Maya as saying: "All citizens are aware that, with the
available data, it will obviously be difficult to talk about
(the festival) as we have known it until now, but today on Feb.2
... there's no decision made."
In a country where COVID restrictions vary from region to
region, and sometimes city to city, such disagreement over
restrictions are rife.
Madrid region's conservative leader, Isabel Diaz Ayuso,
defended on Tuesday her decision to relax some restrictions in
the capital, saying she had not seen any scientific evidence
that meals in restaurants were more contagious than gatherings
at home.
"Health is many things, not just avoiding infection," she
said.
From Friday, groups of up to six will be allowed to gather
in outdoor restaurant terraces in the Madrid region, up from
four now. A 10 p.m. curfew might be pushed to midnight in
Madrid, where people are still allowed to eat and drink inside
bars and restaurants, while theatres and museums remain open.
Ayuso has often clashed with the left-wing central
government on how to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.
"In the fight against the pandemic there are no shortcuts...
It's not advisable or reasonable to start hurrying to wind down
(the restrictions)," government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero
told a news conference.
The Spanish government decided on Tuesday to restrict air
travel with Brazil and South Africa, where new highly contagious
variants of the coronavirus have been detected.
Inbound flights will only be able to carry Spanish nationals
and residents returning to Spain or transit passengers traveling
to countries outside of the Schengen Area with stopovers shorter
than 24 hours, it said.
The health ministry will decide this week whether or not to
give AstraZeneca's recently approved COVID-19 vaccine to
elderly people.
Several European countries including Germany, Poland and
Austria have restricted the shot to younger people amid a lack
of clinical data on its use in people over 65.
On Monday, Spain reported 79,686 new cases since Friday,
slowing from the previous weekend's tally of 93,822 and pushing
the cumulative total above 2.8 million. The death toll rose by
762 to 59,081.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Nathan Allen, Belen Carreno
Writing by Nathan Allen
Editing by Ingrid Melander and Angus MacSwan)
