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Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin 16th January
It's been a sobering week as the coronavirus pandemic intensifies in Spain.
Last Friday, the Health Ministry reported a total of 2,050,360 cases and 51,874 deaths. Today the figures are 2,252,164 cases and 53,314 deaths.
So in one week, 201,804 new cases have been diagnosed and 1,440 deaths recorded.
The number of new cases is unprecedented. The week began with the highest ever weekend figure of 61,422 and continued in that vein all week, the record broken again on Wednesday with 38,869 new cases, and then again on Friday, the figure of 40,197 the highest new cases data ever reported for a single day since the pandemic began last February.
This surge in new cases has pushed the accumulated incidence rate up from 522 to 575 cases per 100,000 of population in a single day, reaching a new height, unsurpassed even during the worst weeks of the second wave when the maximum level was 529 on the 9th November.
The rise in new cases is generalised right across Spain and the AI rate has grown significantly in all autonomous regions. All of the regions of Spain except the Canary Islands are now classified as being at the “extreme risk” level using the “EU traffic light system”, and rising cases, hospitalisations, deaths and a frantic imposition of new restrictions are present in every region.
The accumulated incidence rate per region over 14 days per 100,000 of population is as follows; Extremadura 1220, Murcia 889, Castilla-La Mancha 780, Comunidad Valenciana 760, La Rioja 738, Madrid 698, Castilla y Léon 696, Balearic Islands 637, Melilla 563, Cataluña 561, Aragón 506, Andalucía 463, Ceuta 402, Galicia 392, Navarra 338, Cantabria 336, Basque Country 306, Asturias 257, Canary Islands 163, so regardless of population size, this method of calculation lists the regions from worst to best based on their population percentage, not number of inhabitants.
The massive increase in new cases is starting to show in the hospital system. There are 19,657 patients in Spanish hospitals with coronavirus, a level of admissions last seen only in the worst days of the second wave in the first half of November.
15.69% of all beds are occupied by covid patients, but in the intensive care units the pressure is increasing significantly, with 29.56% occupancy, accounting for 2,963 UCI patients, a rise of 1% in the last 24 hours alone.
2,816 patients have been admitted in the last 24 hours, increasing the pressure considerably.
Some areas are much worse than others; The Valencia Region has 48% occupancy of its intensive care bed capacity full, La Rioja 45%, Cataluña 42%, Balearic Islands 41%, Madrid 37%,Castilla La Mancha 35%. Other regions have lower figures, such as Murcia with 21%, but the regional health authority maintains that this occupancy figure is calculated based on the potential availability of post-surgical beds, which are not normally used for ICU patients and its ICU occupancy is as high as these other regions.
The situation however, is now deteriorating rapidly and is exacerbated by the fact that the new contagions are being detected at an unprecedented speed, obviously having occurred during key days of the festive season. This is expected to compound the pressure on the health system as the admissions are following on from the contagions, en-bloc.Hospitals are bracing themselves for a tsunami of admissions in the next few days as the cases being detected now turn into hospitalisations, a process which normally takes around a week.
Although warning after warning was issued by the medical and scientific community before the festive season that the relaxations being permitted by the Government would lead to a third wave, the intensity of this sudden surge in new cases has shocked many people.
One eminent epidemiologist made the point quite clearly this week when he said that nobody should be surprised at this massive surge. The second wave of the virus began in September when the AI rate for all of Spain had fallen back to 25 cases per 100,000. This third wave is starting from a departure point of 251 cases per 100,000 of population and in the middle of the winter when we are living in closed environments which favour the spread of the virus. This third wave will be the worst by far he says, and it is entirely logical to see why.
Restrictions:
The Government has stuck to its line that “we enjoyed Christmas more than we should have done”: in other words, with the benefit of hindsight, the restrictions on social gatherings and travel were relaxed too much in order to allow people to meet over the festive season, but at the same time, regional and local governments have blamed the public for not "sticking to the rules". This argument certainly has wings, even this morning there are reports in the national media of rulebreakers; " Local Police in Seville break-up two parties with 50 people in each" or "Alicante police break up four private parties and one open-air botellón in Alicante city last night", the same headlines all over the country as people continue to break the rules and spread the virus.
And then, we have the endless debate over allowing businesses to continue trading and maintaining economy activity and for us "living our lives" even though we know this is creating opportunities for the virus to spread, so this morning for example, the Madrid Government has closed the access to the nearest ski resorts to the city, which are already completely full, to prevent crowds gathering and the roads becoming clogged with queues as the maximum capacity for the resorts was reached on Friday evening. Undoubtedly, somebody within that resort this weekend will be contagious and not know it, so by the close of ski-ing on Sunday will have been in contact with many other skiers and could potentially spread the virus. Is it really necessary or even advisable to go ski-ing at the moment? Actually, no, but the companies managing the ski resorts and running the hotels want to keep trading and the public want to ski. Even though they both know that this is creating a situation of un-necessary risk. Nobody will die if they dont go ski-ing this winter, but somebody else who is more susceptible to the virus and becomes caught up in the chain of contagion resulting from this action, may well do so.
We know full well that 53,000 people have already died in Spain through this virus, and this week the INE produced another set of statistics analysing the number of deaths over and above the normal level, which estimates that the real death total in Spain is actually nearer to 80,000. We have written about this in the bulletin before when the reports from the care home sector confirmed that 20,000 residents died in care homes during the first wave without ever being tested by PCR as in the early days of the virus these tests simply weren´t available, so are therefore not included in the official figures, so we know that the figures are around about the correct levels we can expect to see, based on the historical data which records fatalities in the country. Fortunately, at the moment, flu cases are virtually non-existent in Spain, as the measures in place to contain the covid virus are helping to keep the normal flu epidemic at bay; around 4,000 people would normally die from flu in a typical flu season in Spain every year. Last year the covid pandemic began after the flu season had finished so the deaths from flu are distinctly visible in the graphs relating to excess deaths and are not being included in the 80,000 excess deaths estimate for coronavirus.
The 17 regional authorities are now, quite frankly, panicking, and throughout the week have been introducing new, tighter measures to restrict the spread of the virus.
For the main part, the regional governments are maintaining the measure closing their perimeter borders to travellers from other regions and some are now confining municipalities as well. (See, Six regions of Spain tighten restrictions and Andalusia requests total confinement, published on Thursday) Murcia has now confined 38 municipalities (see below) and late last night Andalucia announced that it would be confining 219 municipalities, preventing movement between provinces, limiting gatherings to 4 people and closing bars and restaurants at 6pm, restrictions typical of those being imposed across the country.
Keeping up with all of these endless changes is impossible for the whole country; the Health Ministry has a webpage with the most basic details, ie border closures, curfew hours etc which is being updated with the latest info. This can be seen by clicking here.
The map taken from this page below shows that everywhere except Extremadura, Madrid and the offshore islands have their borders closed. Most of our readers are already here in Spain, which means that for the main part, non-essential travel between regions is not possible anyway due to these regional restrictions and this week the Spanish Government extended its ban on travellers from the UK other than those who are fully resident in Spain and are returning home, to 2nd February.
The main issue which has surfaced several times this week is that of the imposition of a total lockdown.
The Spanish government continues to resist calls for regional governments to be allowed to confine residents to their homes and this week has stated several times that it will not permit a full lockdown, but the pressure on the PSOE-Podemos coalition is growing, with at least four Autonomous Communities now having requested the power to impose stricter lockdown measures.
The governments of Murcia, Andalucía, Castilla y León and Asturias have all asked to be empowered to re-introduce measures similar to those which were in place between March and May last year and both Extremadura and Castilla La Mancha are not ruling out the possibility of putting in a formal request themselves. Cynics might be tempted to point to the fact that Murcia, Andalucía and Castilla y León are all currently governed by the opposition PP party, which is keen to imply that the socialist government is not doing enough at a national level to slow the spread of the virus, but in Asturias this is not the case and the demand for stricter measures has been made despite the incidence rate there being lower than in any other mainland region of Spain.
It is worth pointing out that the political pressure being applied by these same regions back in May last year was for the national government to yield control of the measures applied back to the autonomous regions, and this is what the national government has chosen to do and a path to which it has struck rigidly ever since, refusing time and time again to centralise the covid control measures, instead allowing each regional government to control its own local population as it sees fit.
However, the national government continues to insist resolutely that the measures already being taken by its regional counterparts will be sufficient to flatten out the rising curves and then bring the numbers down, aided by the ever-increasing number of people who have already received the first dose of the vaccine (768,950, according to the official update on Friday).
On Saturday mornng the national Health Minister, Salvador Illa, once again rejected calls for a national lockdown, but said that the government was open to discussing revisions in the state of alarm, such as moving the curfew hour forward: "If we have to revise the times of the curfew, this will be done after talking to everyone and will be done with the maximum legal guarantees, " he said, referring to the situation yesterday in which Castilla y León had been refused permission by the government to bring forward its curfew to 8pm in the evening. The government stated that the curfew should not begin before 10pm in the evening, but the CyL Government had replied that it would disregard the wishes of the government and move the curfew in its region forward to 8pm due to the recent surge in new cases regardless. Today it remains defiant and has instigated the measures necessary to enforce the early curfew.
British Variant
This week there has been a great deal of discussion about why there is such a huge surge in new cases. As stated above, the Government is maintaining its line that this is due to seasonal socialising, but there is also a growing feeling amongst regional health authorities that the role potentially being played by the "British variant" is being played down and there are higher numbers of cases of the more contagious “British variant” in circulation than is being publicly recognised, as cases are rising at unprecedented speed in several areas of the country.
So for this reason the Ministry of Health announced on Friday that it would be carrying out a study involving “hundreds of tests” in order to try and sequence a cross-section of the cases currently circulating in Spain.
The first region to detect the mutation known as B.1.1.7 was Madrid, which notified the Health Ministry of the detection of four cases on December 26th. The origin of these four cases were two passengers who had flown from London.
As of today, Madrid claims to have 48 cases, 19 have been found in Mallorca and 9 in Ibiza, both in the Balearic Islands, (the Department of Epidemiology of the Balearic Health Authority believes that the new variant has been responsible for 5% of the new cases detected recently on the islands), Cantabria said yesterday that it believes 13% of cases detected in the region recently are of the British variant and has sent 82 “highly suspicious” samples to the laboratory for confirmation, on Wednesday the regional minister for health in the Andalucía region said that the “explosive” increase in new cases in his region was due to the new British variant, the Basque Country has confirmed 6, and Murcia 1.
So now Madrid, The Basque Country, the Valencia Region, Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria, Andalucia, Murcia, Extremadura the Balearic and the Canary Islands all have confirmed cases or suspect cases.
Hundreds more cases are being checked, but the problem currently faced is a lack of facilities in which to undertake genomic sequencing of the virus, something that is not possible to carry out in every part of the country.
Samples are currently being sent to the Majadahonda National Microbiology Center, in Madrid for analysis, but this is delaying the capacity of the authorities to react quickly and decisively when it is suspected that a case may be related to this new variant.
There are no national protocols for sending random samples for testing, and Spain does not routinely cross-sample PCR tests to determine which variants are present and the slow response when tests are sent, mean that variants may be spreading in an area undetected and unchecked.
So this is why the new cross-sampling was announced on Friday, to attempt to identify if the British variant is behind the surge in new cases in areas such as Andalucía, in which it is believed to have spread from Gibraltar.
Neighbouring Portugal, which has a long land border with Spain, has also reported a number of cases of the "British variant" and has gone into a month-long lockdown because of its own sudden surge in new cases, although was indignant when the British Government banned flights to the country this week because of fears of the even more virulent "Brazilian variant".
Murcia has currently reported one case of the "British variant".
Vaccines:
By the end of the week the vaccinations programme in Spain had begun to gain some momentum after a fairly sluggish start over the festive period, which was described by the Spanish media as being "akin to travelling on a cruise ship".
The Health Minister has been heavily criticised this week for the slow roll-out, and has blamed lack of supply, the snow, and other logistical issues for the lack of vaccinations. By Monday just over 54% of the vaccines delivered had been administered, and following a heavy push, the week concluded with 768,950 of the 1,139,400 (67.5%)vaccines delivered so far having been adminstered.
Most regions have managed to use 70-80% of their vaccines, although Melilla has miraculously administered more vaccines than have been delivered (102%) according to health authority figures. Murcia is now up to 68%, the Basque Country is the lowest with 46% and Asturias, Catalunya, Cantabria and Galicia have all exceeded 80%. On Monday the health minister said that the way to beat the virus was to "vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate" although lack of supply appears to be the greatest impediment to achieving his aim.
Spain has decided to administer the second dose of the Pfizer vaccines two weeks after the first in order to fully protect its elderly. An illustration of why this is deemed to be necessary came from Navarra, when an outbreak in a carehome involving 17 residents a week after their first vaccine occurred and in Galicia, one carehome resident died of covid this week, a week after receiving a first vaccine.
There is resistance in some quarters to receiving the vaccine, and there has been some controversy in Spain, as in other parts of the world, over whether Covid-19 vaccinations should be made obligatory, with the government in this country having stated that each individual will be guaranteed the right to refuse the injections although a register will be kept of those who opt to do so, and on Wednesday the issue again hit the headlines as the result of a ruling made by a judge in Galicia.
The case in question concerns an 84-year-old woman in the Domus VI San Lázaro home for the elderly in Santiago de Compostela who is described as being “without cognitive ability”. Doctors in the home certified that she was unable to participate even minimally in deciding whether to receive the vaccine, and instead asked her daughter to provide permission for the innoculation to be administered.
However, the daughter stated that she felt unable to take on such a responsibility and that she was under pressure from her brothers to reject the vaccine, and this led to the matter being referred to the courts of Galicia, where the judge ordered that it should be administered to the patient. In doing so, he explained that while receiving the vaccine does entail a certain minimal amount of risk, rejecting it is far riskier, and the longer the process is delayed the more the risk increases as case numbers continue to rise.
This is the first such case to arise in Spain.
On Saturday the Health Minister said that the distribution of vaccines to the autonomous regions was being amended following the announcement of Pfizer on Friday that the supply would be reduced in order for the company to make changes to its production facilities.
This is a blow to roll-out plans, as lack of vaccines will cause significant pressure unless further supplies come online within the next 2 months. This week the first batch of Moderna vaccines (35,700 doses) arrived in Spain and was shared out between the autonomous regions.
The agreement with Moderna establishes that the number of doses will gradually increase in future deliveries to a total of 599,500 doses in the next five weeks (until the third week of February).
52,000 more doses are scheduled to arrive in the fourth week of January; in the first week of February, 127,900, and in the third week of February, 383,900 doses.Moderna's vaccine uses messenger RNA and requires two doses.
Although hopes are high that the vaccination programme will help to ease restrictions in the country, virologists are calling for caution and advising against over optimism. Those who are receiving the vaccines are principally elderly people in nursing homes, who represent just 3% of the Spanish population over 65 years of age, so the vaccination will have a limited short-term impact on the probability of the majority of the population being infected as the virus is circulating most vigorously amongst the younger population who are not in the nursing homes. Although the early vaccinations of this most vulnerable group aims to reduce the number of deaths, it will do little to stem the spread of the virus, as those next in line are health care workers and all those whose professional career makes them more vulnerable to infection, such as police, teachers etc, so the vaccine will not be available to those for example in their 60’s, until March, or even later.
Covid pandemic causing Spaniards to delay having children, survey concludes:A survey carried out by The Family Watch appears to provide evidence that the coronavirus pandemic is causing couples in Spain to delay any decision to have children.
The 10th annual “Barometer of Families in Spain” reports that the proportion of young adults (aged under 45) who consider forming a family a priority dropped last year to 26.3 per cent, considerably lower than the 40 per cent observed in 2019. In other words, around three quarters of young adults do not believe at present that having children is a priority, while those aspects of the future which are prioritized include their careers (89.5 per cent), their studies (61.9 per cent) and travelling (58.6 per cent) – although of course this last one is also on hold in most cases due to the pandemic!
Tourism
Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic early last year the tourism sector in Spain had enjoyed a prolonged period of growth, accounting for well over 10 per cent of the country’s GDP, but the extent to which the industry has been affected since March 2020 is graphically illustrated by figures published this week by the national government’s central statistics unit.
The latest international tourism data published this week relates to November, as this set of data is always published two months behind, and shows that in November last year the number of people travelling to Spain from abroad was only a tenth of the equivalent figure in the same month of 2019 at 457,000, with huge decreases in relation to all of the major sources of visitors. (Flights data, also published this week, supports these figures, Aena losing 200 million passengers this year) The UK was the largest single market, but the figure of only 88,000 coming from Britain again represents a drop of almost 90 per cent.
Most important for the sector, of course, is the fact that the fall in the number of visitors translates into a similar drop in the amount of money they spend in Spain. During November it is calculated that visitors from abroad spent 467 million euros in this country, which might seem like a lot of money but represents a decrease of 90.8 per cent in comparison with the same month in 2019.
Again the UK tops the list with spending of 99 million euros but a drop of 87.9 per cent, and in the same way the year-to-date figures after 11 months also mirror the trend in visitor numbers. By the end of November spending by foreign tourists amounted to 19 billion euros, 78.1 per cent less than in 2019, while visitors from the UK had spent 3 billion euros (82.3 per cent less than the year before).
The air traffic figures relased later in the week clearly illustrate the situation in the tourism sector:
Passenger numbers at Corvera airport 94 per cent down in December.During the final month of the year just 3.82 million people flew into or out of Spanish airports, and although this was more than in November it still represents a decrease of over 79 per cent in comparison with December 2019. Unsurprisingly, the fall was most significant in relation to international flights, where the number of passengers fell by 86.3 per cent to 1.6 million, but at the same time, despite many Spaniards flying home for Christmas, there was a fall of 66.2 per cent in the figure for those on domestic services.
This brings to an end a year in which the number of passengers using Spanish airports has dropped by a staggering 72.4 per cent to 76.06 million, and Spanish airports have LOST 200 MILLION PASSENGERS THIS YEAR.
During December the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera processed a total of just 2,313 passengers and only 80 flights (including both landings and take-offs), according to Aena. December is never one of the busiest months of the year at the Costa Cálida airport, but nonetheless in the last month of 2019 there were almost 37,000 passengers taking off and landing at Corvera: in other words, it could be said that last month almost 94 per cent of passengers were “lost” to the pandemic.
At the same time, it would be no exaggeration to say that the year as a whole was disastrous for the airport, which opened exactly 2 years ago (15th January 2019). The cumulative total of passengers in 2020 reached only 217,912, only a fifth of the 2019 total of just over 1.1 million.
Looking ahead to 2021, it is already clear that this bleak situation will continue at least until the end of the winter season in late March: Jet2 have confirmed this week that they will not be operating UK-Spain flights at least until April, Ryanair has this week cancelled dozens of flights to Spain and on Friday easyJet cancelled all package holidays until April, including its Spanish packages.
Realistically, travel from the UK is now banned until mid-February anyway other than for residents, and the local restrictions now being imposed mean there's not much fun to be had for those who do make it to Spain anyway!
This of course, is all contributing to growing concerns about the long-term effects on the economy.
The BBVA has said this week that a third wave will delay economic recovery in Spain. The BBVA analysts estimate that the pandemic-hit year of 2020 brought a drop of 11 per cent in Spain’s GDP, half a point lower than had been predicted, and that the economy will bounce back to the tune of 5.5 per cent during this year. Again this is half a point lower than previous estimates, but at the same time it is only just over half of the 9.8 per cent growth estimated in the latest government forecast.
Looking further ahead, BBVA forecast growth of another 7 per cent in 2022, but it will not be until the following year that the national economy returns to the level reached prior to the pandemic.
Another major topic this week has been the ongoing negotiations between the Government, unions and business associations to agree the conditions of an extension to the ERTE scheme, which allows businesses to furlough staff until after the restrictions ease without being forced to make them redundant. Agreement has been reached to extend the temporary employment regulation files scheme (ERTE) until May 31st, co-inciding with the end of the State of Alarm, but there are still significant details to be negotiated, as the government is unwilling to pay compensation to businesses which subsequently make employees redundant when the scheme ends.
Weather
It would be impossible to conclude an overview of the main news this week without mentioning the weather. Storm Filomena caused havoc this week, with the heaviest snowfalls in the capital city bringing Madrid to a complete halt. All week, work has continued to fully restore services and re-open roads, but efforts have been hampered by the freezing temperatures of the cold wave which followed the snowfalls.
The country as a whole experienced the coldest night in more than 20 years on Tuesday, with minimums falling to -25.2 and although daytime temperatures here in the Costa Cálida are rising back up to around 20 degrees, it's cold at night and some parts of the region are still experiencing frost overnight.
Murcian agriculturalists in general welcomed the effects of the storm, as in much of the Region the rain which fell on Thursday and Friday was gentle and steady, providing a welcome watering for both fruit trees and vegetables, and the only downside was on higher ground in the north and north-west where snow settled. Even here the effect of the frosts is not expected to be too severe as the main crops are those which are not irrigated, such as olives, vines and almonds, and these plants are currently in their “vegetative phase”.
For this reason the trees are relatively unaffected, and in the case of almonds the current cold weather is beneficial as it delays the onset of flowering. In consequence the colourful sight of the spring “floración” in fruit growing areas such as Cieza is expected to return to more traditional dates this year after occurring earlier in recent times.
But the cold snap has also caused significant damage to crops in some areas, as a result of which prices of lettuce, broccoli, courgettes, peppers and aubergines are all increasing due to supply shortages and even here in this agricultural area, courgettes have disappeared off supermarket shelves due to the weather.The extreme low temperatures caused the loss of around 20% of crops in neighbouring Almería and Granada, which were much colder than Murcia, in which produce grown inside protective greenhousing was also damaged by the freezing temperatures, mainly affecting courgettes, aubergines and peppers.
Here in the Region of Murcia the principal casualties were artichokes with an area of around 4,400 hectares damaged, followed by lettuces with 1,200 hectares, and some broccoli was also frozen.
Pupils and teachers shiver in freezing classrooms across Spain to comply with covid measures:the start of the new term has coincided with some of the coldest weather on record in Spain, and due to classes having to be ventilated as a coronavirus precaution pupils and staff in most are consigned to wearing fleeces, bobble hats and even mittens throughout the school day.
National students’ union CANAE has described the situation as “unsustainable”.
CANAE reiterate the fact that heating systems are broken in countless schools across the country and that many school buildings lack any kind of heat insulation: this, they say, added to the wearing of facemasks and partial attendance regulations in place in most centres, is making both teaching and learning unreasonably difficult!.
Price of electricity in Spain soars 27 per cent in the midst of the cold snap: The cold weather across Europe and Asia, together with enforced confinements due to coronavirus, has pushed up demand and prices. As a result, the price of electricity has shot up by 27% at the start of 2021, with the regulated rate (PVPC) reaching 16.81 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), compared to the price of 13.24 cents in the same period of 2020, according to data from Facua-Consumidores en Acción.
Based on data for the first seven days of the year, the average user's electricity bill would cost 80.71 euros this year, which represents an increase of 19.3% over the 67.67 euros on the same dates last year. At the moment the behaviour of the price of gas derivatives in international markets is behind a large part of this price increase. Sources in the energy sector point out that there are reductions in gas supply from Algeria, Spain's main supplier. In addition, the cold wave in Asia is triggering demand there with record prices, so it is more expensive to transport gas to the Spanish mainland.
All these factors have a direct impact on the electricity bill of consumers, although not on the bills of all consumers nor in the same proportion. Those who will be directly affected will be those households that have contracted the regulated rate (Small Consumer Sales Price -PVPC-) which represent approximately 40% of the more than 26 million dwellings in Spain. In these cases, the price paid for each kilowatt hour (kwh) depends on the evolution of the electricity cost in the wholesale market.
Murcia covid.
Last Friday the Murcia region had 6,964 active cases, a figure which has this week risen by 7,452, so more than double, to 14,416.
Fatalities last Friday were 771, a figure which is now 802, a rise of 31 during the last week (NB. On Saturday 11 further fatalities were announced so this total is now 813)
Total cases diagnosed were 64,980 and this figure is now 75,902, a rise of 10,922 new patients in a week.
There were 323 patients in hospital, there are now 640, more than double, with 103 in intensive care.
To sum up, it's been the worst week ever for the region, which now has the highest number of active cases than at any other time as well as the highest number of patients in hospital than at any other time.
The 11 deaths today equal the record for the most deaths in a single day set in November.
Throughout the week, the regional health service has been implementing measures to try and free up staff resources, and to cope with the growing demands on its facilities and resources.
Face-to-face consultations with specialist doctors suspended in Murcia Region. All outpatient consultations in hospitals will become telematic for the moment in order to minimise the risk to both consultant and patient. Click to read
Murcian health service cancels all staff leave as covid situation deteriorates. Emergency wards have already been opened in anticipation of a surge in admissions, others are ready and waiting (such as the second floor in the Rosell in Cartagena; click to read full article); this week the regional health service has suspended non-urgent operations in all of the hospitals of the region and on Thursday issued a decree suspending all holidays and leave permits for health personnel of the regional health service in order to "have all the human resources that are necessary in the coming weeks".
Murcian college of doctors calls for full lockdown.The official College of Doctors in the Region of Murcia has requested that a full lockdown be imposed by the regional government for a period of a fortnight in response to the soaring incidence rates observed over the last few days. Hospital and intensive care unit beds are becoming ever more scarce as case numbers rise, and the doctors consider that drastic measures are required in order to guarantee that the health service is not overwhelmed.
The regional government of Murcia is amongst those pressuring the national Government to permit a full lockdown, but has itself this week taken drastic measures to try and halt this surge in cases, as the region now has the second highest rate of contagion in all of Spain.
On Monday the regional Government announced that 36 municipalities would be confined and their bars and restaurants closed down.
On Thursday a further 2 municipalities; Calasparra and Beniel were added to the list and by Friday only Mazarrón and Aledo remained outside of the "extreme risk" red level. Although this weekend bars and restaurants were still open in 7 municipalities (including Totana, Alhama and Mazarrón), it is highly likely that by the time the Covid Monitoring Committee meets again on Monday to re-assess this measure, that all of the region will be "in the red" and facing continued confinement.
Due to the fact that the number of cases has surged in such an aggressive manner, the regional government has gone one step further and following an emergency meeting of the monitoring committee on Thursday announced that social gatherings of any size would be prohibited in the region from Friday for a period of two weeks.
Residents are now not permitted to meet with anyone outside of their immediate household bubble, either inside or outside, and may not even meet friends in their own home for a coffee or go for a walk with friends. The BORM published the full text on Friday, and does permit those living on their own to form a bubble with another household, for parents with children living in separate houses to meet and for couples who must live at separate addresses for work reasons to meet up.
The regional government has requested that local councils cancel any cultural or sporting events scheduled for this 2 week period and close municipal facilities. Several councils have done this including Águilas, Lorca, Mazarrón, Cartagena and Murcia City, so museums, galleries, tourist offices, tourist attractions etc are closed, as are municipal swimming pools etc.
The public are not permitted to move outside of their immediate home municipality for anything other than essential reasons such as attending official appointments, going to the bank or accountant, or for business reasons in all municipalities which are confined.
The only concession made on Friday is that those practising sport are permitted to do so with other people, but masks must be worn, and residents must remain within their home municipality for their sporting activities unless they are professional sportspeople as inter-regional competitive sport is still taking place.
The restrictions will be revised periodically.
The Murcian regional president once again reiterated the need to respect the restrictions and for a huge effort to be made to control the virus.
The Murcia AI accumulated incidence rate has now increased to 789.5 cases per 100,000 of population over 7 days and 1134 per 100,000 over 14 days, both extremely high levels and more than double the national incidence rates, making Murcia the secnd worst-affected region in Spain.
Just to give an indication of how this compares to the European situation, these are the 14 day rates for other European countries (taken from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), figures per 100,000 of population;France 329, Italy 379, Spain 522, Germany 324, Netherlands 623, Belgium 225, Sweden 790, Portugal 901, Greece 82.
So the Murcian figures are extremely high.
There is only one municipality in the region with no cases; Aledo, and everywhere else the AI rate has gone through the roof.
Bearing in mind that the national average across Spain over 14 days was 522 per 100,000, these are the figures for the worst affected municipalities in the Murcia Region over 14 days, the highest being 2946 in Moratalla, Albudeite 2767, Fortuna 2739, Yecla 2451, Mula 2422, Abanilla 2105, Caravaca 2003.
Listed below are the 7 day rates: the highest being Albudeite with 2403, Moratalla 2066, Yecla 2009, Fortuna 1859, Mula 1824, Caravaca 1696, Jumilla 1285, Ricote 1107, Abanilla 1060, Lorqui 1036, Alguazas 913, Torres de Cotillas 912, Murcia 846, Campos del Rio 789, Bullas 771, Molina de Segura 770, La Union 766, Ceuti 729, Abarán 725, Villanueva 721, Cartagena 689, Santomera 666, Cieza 657, Pliego 649, Blanca 642, Cehegin 627, San Pedro 604, Ojos 600, Lorca 584, Alcantarilla 558, Torre Pacheco 552, Archena 502, Aguilas 501, San Javier 486, Ulea 457, Beniel 424, Fuente Alamo 422, Los Alcázares 365, Calasparra 363, Alhama 317, Totana 296, Puerto Lumbreras 266, Mazarron 239, Librilla 226, Aledo 0.
Really high figures given that the target rate for bringing the virus under control is 60 over 14 days and 25 over 7!
Although these figures work with percentages, calculating the rate per 100,000 of population, not by numbers of cases alone, the numbers of cases involved are very high in some areas. In Murcia city for example, these translate into 3,385 new cases this week alone, 1480 in Cartagena, 308 in Mula, 692 in Yecla, 197 in Torre Pacheco, and even at the bottom of the list, 77 new cases in Mazarrón.
So be careful, this is now a serious situation and is expected to worsen in the coming week.
Not everybody is happy about the restrictions as is only to be expected; the hostelry sector warned on Monday that the region could lose up to a third of its bars and restaurants if these restrictions continued and the sector wasn´t given more financial aid and on Friday ignored the request of the regional president that gatherings of this nature should not take place and gathered in Murcia city on Friday morning before the BORM was published to protest noisily in front of the headquarters of the regional government about the restrictions and enforced closure of their businesses.
Other Murcia news:
Mazarrón shopping park and Los Alcázares hotel purchased by Hungarian investors: Unnamed private investors in Hungary have acquired two important assets in the Costa Cálida following negotiations through an Alicante-based real estate consultancy named Danubio Homes, purchasing the Mazarrón Park shopping centre and the 4-star Hotel Mossaic in Los Alcázares.
Assets of the emblematic Casa del Reloj in San Pedro del Pinatar are up for auction.The company managing the restaurant, located in a Modernist building in San Pedro del Pinatar which was built in 1888, entered voluntary liquidation in November 2019 before the outbreak of the pandemic preceded closure in June last year, and that procedure is now to be concluded with the auction of items including crockery, dinner services, plates, glasses, the kitchen equipment and a marquee used for celebratory events. These items are grouped together in three lots with a total starting price of 353,332.21 euros, but the company’s accumulated debts amount to a total of over 2.3 million euros.
Ecologists present objections to proposed 5-star hotel in San Pedro del Pinatar.The Ecologistas en Acción association has joined the naturalist group ANSE in presenting objections at the Town Hall of San Pedro del Pinatar to the proposed construction of a hotel linked to the Pinatar Arena sports complex,highlighting the “incompatibility” of the project with the area in which it is located.
The association claims that the proposed site in the Los Imbernones area of San Pedro is currently classified as non-buildable land, and that the size of the complex under consideration would make it necessary to undertake a complete re-design of the ordinance of the area, including a satisfactory justification of the need to create access roads.
Firemen pull trapped dog out of a well in Librilla. Firemen from the regional fire services were called in to rescue a dog which had become trapped in a well which formed part of a water irrigation system in the municipality of Librilla.
Driver of overturned concrete lorry was 5 times over the legal limit.The Guardia Civíl of the Region of Murcia has detained the driver of a 26-ton concrete mixer, who will be charged for alleged crimes against road safety, after the loaded truck he was driving overturned when he was five times over the legal alcohol limit.
Another drunk driver travelled 13 kilometres against the traffic on RM-3 before collision in Mazarrón. The female driver of a car travelling on the correct carriageway was hospitalised as a direct result of the head-on collision.
Support local charities affected by the pandemic; The tale of a man who cut the tail off a puppy with a pair of scissors; Support Andreas Animal Rescue please. When the Polica went to see the owner, not only had he cut the tails of the 6 siblings .... he had also cut all the ears off as well using a pair of scissors! Click to read
So apologies for the dour start to the year and a thank you for your continued support. It's certainly going to be a difficult few weeks ahead, but hopefully the vaccinations may start to make a difference by late spring. Although it has been a slow start, the Murcian Government reported on Saturday afternoon that 88.6% of the doses received to date had been administered, some 37,000 doses, and that on Monday they would begin the process of giving second doses to the most vulnerable.
Have a good week and stay safe!
