Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the policies adopted in Spain to halt the spread of COVID-19 based on territorial criteria. Limitations on the free movement of people, lockdowns, restrictions on a range of activities and public policies to contain the pandemic have been implemented based on sectoral, regional, provincial and local administrative boundaries. In many cases, these boundaries present problems (being imprecisely defined, overlapping and subject to historical conflict, etc.) that hinder effective public policy management. Against this backdrop, we analyse different types of boundary and their associated problems which have made them largely ineffective in controlling the pandemic or localised outbreaks of infection. We place special emphasis on the borderlands occupying areas adjacent to regional or other boundaries where a lack of cooperation has caused difficulties in combating COVID-19. Our analysis focuses specifically on the autonomous community of Catalonia and its neighbouring regions. Catalonia provides us with some paradigmatic cases for analysis, including its border with Aragon (the site of a major outbreak in July 2020), the administrative boundary between the municipalities of Barcelona and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (an example of an urban boundary and the site of a COVID-19 upsurge within the Barcelona metropolitan area in July 2020), the district of La Conca d’Òdena (one of the first cases of supra-local lockdown in March 2020), and the management of de-escalation in Catalonia, based on the so-called healthcare regions (April–June 2020).
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Notes
- 1.
Author’s note: all text from the PTNN is the author’s translation of the Spanish original.
- 2.
Author’s note: author’s translation of Spanish original: ‘Adecuada en la medida en que todo el mundo puede entender que la epidemia de coronavirus no conoce de fronteras ni municipales, ni provinciales, ni tampoco, naturalmente, autonómicas, hablando de nuestro país. Como, asimismo, las fronteras nacionales no han sido ningún instrumento (ni geográfico, ni jurídico, ni político) para impedir la rápida expansión de la epidemia (...)’.
- 3.
Author’s note: author’s translation of Spanish original: ‘Desde el momento en que la UE se convirtió en epicentro de la pandemia la libre circulación de personas ha pasado de ser pilar de la integración a convertirse en el principal obstáculo para la lucha contra la enfermedad. La limitación, a priori temporal, de este derecho por razones de orden público, salud y seguridad pública se convierte en la medida por excelencia para impedir la expansión acelerada de los contagios, evitando así el colapso de los sistemas de atención sanitaria.’
- 4.
Resolution of 6 May 2020 of the Congress of Deputies, ordering the publication of the Resolution authorizing the extension to the state of alarm declared by Royal Decree 463/2020 of 14 March.
- 5.
2016 Annual Report on the National Health System. Noteworthy strategies and actions. Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Informe Anual del Sistema Nacional de Salud 2016. Estrategias y acciones destacables. Comunidad Autónoma de Cataluña).
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Galindo Caldés, R., Tort Donada, J., Santasusagna Riu, A. (2022). Administrative Boundaries and Covid-19: The Case of Catalonia, Spain. In: Nunes Silva, C. (eds) Local Government and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Local and Urban Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91112-6_10
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