ARCHIVED - Large-scale student Covid outbreak: 900 cases now linked to Mallorca student trips

Cases have been reported in several Spanish regions, and more than 250 students remain in quarantine on the island in the Balearics.

The number of Covid cases linked to the massive outbreak among students on end-of-year trips to Mallorca has increased over the weekend, now totalling around 900 cases confirmed so far. 

Almost half the positive cases (410) have been reported in Madrid, and further cases have also been reported in Valencia, Catalonia, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, Galicia, the Basque Country and Aragon.

Regional health authorities across the country continue to trace, isolate and test students who may have come into contact with the outbreak, meaning the number of positive cases may continue to increase. 

There are also more than 260 positive cases in the Balearic Islands that have been linked to direct and indirect contacts with students.

On Friday, the authorities decided to move all the students who were still in Mallorca and may have been in contact with the virus to one hotel, the Palma Bellver, which is serving as a quarantine and testing centre. 

Seventy-eight youngsters have already been transferred to the hotel, and 33 of them have tested positive for Covid.  Another 190 students remain in isolation in their rooms at other hotels waiting for their parents to give their authorization for them to be transferred and tested.  

There have been numerous complaints from the students that they are "being held prisoner" in the hotel.

The outbreak is believed to have stemmed from a concert at Palma bullring and various parties at hotels and on boats, where different groups of students from all over the country coincided and mingled, following the annual tradition of end of term parties following the University entry exams.

One student said in a newspaper report, "Yes, of course we had contact with each other on the trip....that's what the holiday is all about!".