Maribel Gallego has been looking at the door of her shop all morning.

His concern this morning was trying to find out how many people were going to eat at his Los Arcos de Ponzano restaurant because

he had no reservations.

Normally, she gives an average of 40 meals, but today she is satisfied with 15. This restaurateur lives in anguish because she knows that this week she will have to communicate again to

some of her workers that they are returning to the Erte

.

The new restrictions on hospitality that come into vig

Or in the Community of Madrid they do not leave him another way out. "I am very sorry to put them in Erte, because later

the government does not pay them

.

You feel responsible for these people.

I have had to lend money to my employees.

Psychologically, it is terrible for the employees as well as for us, "laments the owner of this restaurant with almost 70 years of history behind her. The oasis that Ponzano Street represents for the hotel industry is fading away as

the fence around restaurants is tightened

and they increase the limitations to stop the expansion of the Covid.The advance of the curfew at 22.00,

from the closure of the hotel business at 9:00 p.m.

and the limitation of tables to four people is the last straw for many restaurateurs.

"We have lost the afternoons because, after 8.30, the customer can no longer order anything," says José, behind the bar of the Fide seafood restaurant, practically deserted at aperitif time.

"You see how we are. Very calm. Looking at our faces," jokes the waiter. A few meters away, Paco García, who runs the Ponzano restaurant, does not complain so much that the tables can only be four people, as the schedule: "With the previous closing of 10 o'clock, people still came to dinner at 8.30, but with the one now, it's as if you closed at 5. People leave work at 7 or 8 o'clock and they don't have time for dinner before 9, "Garcia complains.

"Snow has joined us with the restrictions and it is being

the worst stage of this restaurant in 30 years "

From the Madrid Hospitality Association they calculate that the fact of not being able to give dinners will cause an additional 25% reduction in the billing of the premises and

will mean losses of 4.5 million euros

to the whole of the Madrid hospitality sector that does not raise its head. "The month of December started very well, but ended very badly and customers began to fall. With this uncertainty,

no one makes plans "

Gallego asserts. This businesswoman has already had to close the restaurant twice and now struggles not to do it a third time.

"We comply with the rules. Let us work! I ask the Government to tell the truth and not look for culprits in the hospitality industry. To dedicate itself to managing its people because when you need it most

Sepe or Social Security won't pick up the phone or they're closed "

Gallego insists.

56 control points

Along with the limitations to the hospitality industry, Madrid has also released mobility restrictions

in 16 basic health zones

in nine districts of the city and another 40 in the rest of the region. As always happens the first day that the measures come into force, the oversight was widespread.

"The mistake was mine.

I had no idea

.

There comes a point when you don't read the news anymore because if you don't get depressed, "María apologized, after being intercepted by a municipal policeman at a control on Avenida de la Guindalera. Finally, she was able to show a certificate proving that she needed to go the neighborhood and thus evade the sanction.Like the one in La Guindalera, the Municipal Police will install

56 control points

in the perimeter zones to control that citizens do not enter or leave the basic areas of Hortaleza, Chamberí, Moncloa-Aravaca, Barajas, San Blas-Canillejas, Salamanca, Ciudad Lineal, Tetuán and Fuencarral-El Pardo The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has reinforced police surveillance

with 218 more agents

and the Air Drone Unit to enforce these new restrictions in the face of the uncontrolled expansion of the coronavirus.

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