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Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin 30th January
Covid Spain:
Monday began with the highest number of new cases yet recorded over a weekend; 94,000 new cases between Friday and Monday evenings as compared to 84,000 the previous weekend.
By Friday the country had averaged nearly 40,000 new cases a day for two weeks, and although a trend towards stabilisation can be observed, the latest additions bring the total number of cases diagnosed by PCR test to date up to 2,743,119. The actual number of infected is believed to have topped six million people according to sampling by the INE, the majority of whom have been asymptomatic and have never been detected.
During the last week Spain has reported 243,559 new cases only fractionally lower than the 247,396 of the previous week.
So although there has been only a fractional decrease, there is some stabilisation, but the number of new cases being detected remains extremely high, as does the number of deaths; 513 deaths were confirmed on Friday, concluding the blackest week of the pandemic since April last year, with 2,878 deaths in seven days.
The accumulated incidence rate has started slowly subsiding and closed Friday at 886 cases per 100,000 inhabitants across 14 days, three points lower than on Thursday and 13 less than on Wednesday. But the situation in the autonomous regions shows some regions struggling, with the Valencia Region heading up the regional rates at 1,431.28 cases per 100,000 of population and six other regions with more than a thousand cases: La Rioja (1347), Murcia (1285), Melilla (1029), Extremadura (1178), Castilla y León (1402) and Castilla-La Mancha (1205). All of the other regions, except the Canary Islands, remain well above the 250 cases level which is considered to be 'extreme risk'. Remember, the target rate for the virus being under control is 60 cases per 100,000 of population over 14 days.
The latest European data from the ECDC European centre for Disease Prevention and Control illustrates how high the numbers are in Spain compared to much of Europe; the data is latent and was last updated on Wednesday and at that point Portugal had the worst figures in Europe with 1429 cases per 100,000, for which reason the border with Spain is closing from today for a 2 week period, the rate for Spain was 1026, followed by the Czech Republic at 981. France has a rate of 403, which is in the ascent, Italy 315, Germany 265, Poland 231,Netherlands 431, Belgium 252,Sweden 483,Denmark 216,Ireland 814,Norway 105, Finland 72,Greece 67.
Number of new cases in Spain; Ministry of Health
Hospital situation in Spain:
There are 30,804 patients hospitalised with coronavirus across Spain at the moment, giving an occupancy of 24%.
But in intensive care units there is intense pressure, with an occupancy of 43.95% on Friday, a figure which continues to slowly rise. On Thursday the figure was 42.84%, but it must be highlighted that the calculation for ICU beds does include beds which can be used for ICU, but which are not necessarily used for ICU throughout the year. An illustration of this is that in Murcia the current occupancy of ICU beds is 140% according to the regional health authority, as all beds habitually allocated for ICU use are full, and beds normally allocated for surgical recovery are being used for ICU patients. However, these official figures produced by the Ministry only show ICU occupany in Murcia as being at 35.66%, a figure which in no way reflects the current crisis within the Murcian health system.
In total, 4,608 people are admitted to the ICUs of Spanish hospitals.
Although all regions are under pressure, the highest rate is the Valencia Region in which the pandemic is recognised as being out of control, which has 63% occupancy of ICU beds, although in reality, all of the normal ICU beds in the region are full and patients are being treated in three field hospitals set up outside the principal hospitals of each of the three provinces in the region.
Castilla la Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalunya, Madrid and La Rioja all exceed 50% ICU occupancy.
On Friday the Ministry also revealed that since the beginning of the pandemic, 118,063 health professionals have been infected and 8,416 are currently on leave with coronavirus, all contributig to the strain on the health system.
Variants:
The presence of the British strain, belived to be more contagious than the existing dominant variants, continues to generate uncertainty and concern. The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias,(Click to see change in Spanish Health Minister this week) said on Friday that 350 cases of this variant have already been confirmed, but estimated that this variant may already represent between 5 and 10% of the total cases in the country, a figure which is expected to continue rising.
There is considerable scepticism on some social media groups about the presence of the variant here in Spain and how it reached this country, commentators denying that British citizens could possibly be responsible for bringing the variant here.
Although the British Government knew about the spread of a new variant, the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in Kent, hence its’ nickname “British variant” mid-autumn, the extent of its spread was not made public until just before Christmas, by which time the new variant had been able to leave the shores of the UK and spread all over the world. At least 50 countries are now known to have confirmed detection of this variant.
The first cases confirmed in Spain were found in individuals known to have travelled to Spain from the UK before the British Government revealed the extent of its spread within the UK.
Although France immediately locked down its ports after the announcement had been made, by this point hundreds of travellers from the UK had taken advantage of a 2-week window between travel bans to drive through France into Spain without the need for a PCR test, some of them bringing the variant with them. In other cases, PCR tests had given a negative result, but travellers developed symptoms after arriving in Spain, as obviously it’s perfectly possible to contract the virus in the 72 hour window between taking a PCR test and travelling. In most instances, the first variants detected were found in people who had travelled from the UK as described above during this time period, although later detections of the variant have been secondary infections.
However, there is now emerging evidence that the variant had travelled here before the Spanish authorities were aware that there was a significant problem in the UK, and the variant has been found in sewage analysis prior to the announcement of the UK Government. For this reason, water companies across Spain have increased water testing in sewage works from this week onward to try and detect the presence of the variant.
This week the Health Ministry has approved genome sequencing protocols to monitor spread of variants and is establishing a network of laboratories where genome sequencing is performed and standardized procedures will be coordinated by the national Epidemiological Vigilance System.
At the moment, samples are all being sent to Madrid, an inefficient and slow process which is not providing information as rapidly as some regional health authorities would like it to.
The aim is to routinely test samples taken via PCR testing to establish the sequencing of the variants circulating in Spain.
Murcia has also announced that the number of British variant cases detected have risen from 3 to 16 this week and a further 20 suspected samples have been sent for analysis.
On Friday the Basque Country raised the total of cases of the British variant detected to 60.
On Friday the Asturias regional health authority said that the detection of the variant in Asturias was “becoming more frequent”, confirming that detections of the variant had risen from 2% at the beginning of the month to 20% of all cases by the end of the month.
No cases of the Brazilian variant have been detected to date and only one case of the South African variant, has been identified in Spain so far, in the Galician city of Vigo. This patient is a 30-year-old man, who has already been discharged and did not require hospital admission, linked to the naval industry and who had travelled to South Africa for work reasons. On his return from the trip, he reported symptoms compatible with the virus.
Vaccinations.
Obviously, the way forward is to rack up the vaccinations programme, but Spain continues to suffer from a lack of vaccines due to supply shortages throughout Europe, a topic which has been in the news all week.
At least there seems to be emerging evidence that the vaccines currently in use will protect against the British variant; on Friday an article published in the “Science” journal stated that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was “very effective” against the British variant and researchers had found no loss of protection in tests.
On Friday the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light to the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Novavax vaccine also published results showing almost 90% effectivity against the virus, although its response is slightly lower for the British strain, and the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies published results demonstrating 72% protection in a single dose in the ENSEMBLE trial in the United States and 66% overall to prevent moderate to severe COVID-19, 28 days after immunization.
Spain is part of the block buying group which is expecting to receive up to 400 million vaccines from AstraZeneca, and is depending on the outcome of feisty negotiations between the EU and the Anglo-Swedish drug-maker.
Last week the manufacturer said that up to 60% fewer doses than expected would be delivered to the EU during the first quarter of 2021. The EU has also received fewer than expected doses of the two other vaccines it has approved - from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, leading to a shortage throughout the countries depending on these manufacturers in order to vaccinate their populations, amongst them Spain.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview with German radio on Friday morning that “"There are binding orders and the contract is crystal clear," making it absolutely plain that she will not back down and expects the manufacturer to deliver the vaccines as promised, based on the contract signed, even if this does mean diverting doses from its UK manufacturing plant to compensate for the manufacturing difficulties being experienced in Belgium. The company maintains that its other contractual obligations to the Uk for their vaccine roll-out, prevented this, but this point of view is being disputed by the EU, which is adamant that AstraZeneca's UK facilities are not back-up facilities; they are part of the main network, and are part of the overall supply chain for all of the vaccies in production; "This is not an option, it is a contractual obligation," they say.
Spain is being severely hampered by the lack of vaccines and during the last month has only received a total of 1.7 million vaccines. 1,474,189 have been administered and the number of people who have received both doses is only 250,866 in total.
The roll-out in Spain is a lot slower than had been anticipated because of this and this week first vaccinations have been suspended in Madrid, Catalunya and other regions due to the shortage of doses. The Spanish authorities are insisting on applying both doses of the vaccines in order to guarantee the fullest degree of protection possible and have been allocating the small amount of stock being delivered to fulfilling second vaccinations, rather than continuing to vaccinate as many people as possible with a first vaccine.
Murcia health service performs bread and fishes miracle as under-supply slows vaccinations! In the Region of Murcia the SMS health service pulled off a “bread and fishes” miracle earlier this week by using the “sixth dose” of Pfizer vials to administer more vaccines than had theoretically been delivered!
The Ministry of Health update published on Tuesday showed that 46,385 doses had been delivered to Murcia and that 48,652 had been administered, representing a take-up rate of 104.9 per cent!
Unfortunately, while the emergency deliveries made by the Ministry from its own emergency reserves this week will provide a stopgap solution in the short term, it is seeming more and more likely that the long-awaited immunization program will take significantly longer throughout the country than had been hoped.
The problem with "queue jumping" has continued all week, and it has become apparent that more than 700 politicians and high profile figures have been immunised across the country in spite of not being in high profile groups. The infractions are very varied and range from the Lorca fire fighters who are not included in the most at-risk group to regional ministers of health. The Murcian regional minister resigned last week and went back to his normal dayjob working as a hospital specialist, as did the former Mayoress of Molina de Segura who was refusing to resign last week, and this week his counterpart in Ceuta also finally resigned.Many regions have said that those who jumped the queue will not be given their second doses until it is legally "their turn".
The number of cases arising obliged the national government to revise its protocols regarding the prioritization of certain groups of the population, and as a result the regional health service in Murcia was amongst those forced to alter its immunization strategy.
Dispensing chemists, opticians and 887 people employed in young people’s centres will now have to wait until others have received the jab – with the exception of a few pharmacists who have already been vaccinated – although dentists, dental hygienists and others who by the nature of their professions have to treat patients without masks for over 15 minutes are still included in the priority group.
All of this means that the typical retiree, aged over 65 and not in the higher at risk groups is unlikely to be seeing a vaccine until the end of March here in Spain unless the supply situation improves.
374 mild adverse reactions to the first 474,000 doses of Covid vaccine administered in Spain.The Spanish Medicines Agency has released figures this week which show an extremely low level of side effects.
As of 12th January, when 474,000 doses had been administered, notification had been received of only 374 adverse reactions, and none of them were serious. This leads the Agency to conclude that no previously unknown possible adverse reaction which might give cause for concern has been identified either in Spain or in the remainder of the EU.
The most frequent reactions reported were high temperatures, general discomfort, dizziness, headaches and diarrhoea, and in general they occurred in women (83 per cent) more than in men, and in patients under the age of 65 (67%) more than in the elderly: many of these younger people have been included in priority groups due to their being front-line health workers.
Spanish antiviral medication reported to have 100 per cent success in treating Covid: The Spanish pharmaceuticals company PharmaMar is reporting that a chemical compound called plitidepsin, which is already used to treat gout and certain kinds of tumour, has been found to be almost 100 per cent effective in eliminating SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19.Specifically, the research indicates that plitidepsin acts by blocking the eEF1A protein which is present in human cells, and which is used by SARS-CoV-2 to reproduce and infect other cells. Sources quoted in the Spanish press report that testing has already begun in human Covid patients and that even at very low doses the compound has been found to be fully effective: positive results were obtained in a sample of 45 patients in 13 hospitals.
Other Covid Spain:
1,100 mink culled in northern Spain after one tested positive for Covid:
Calls for mink farming to be banned and all animals culled have grown louder in Spain since the reports of a second coronavirus outbreak at a farm in Galicia earlier this month, and it has now been announced that a third such business has been found to be affected in the region of Castilla y León.
The farm is in the municipality of Navatalgordo (in the province of Ávila), where one animal has tested positive for Covid-19. Given the high degree of transmission from mink to humans the regional government has ordered that all 1,010 mink at the premises be culled in order to protect public health.
There are just 38 mink farms in Spain, of which 31 are in Galicia and the remainder in Aragón, the Basque Country, Castilla y León and Valencia. Even so, these concerns produce 750,000 pelts a year but the activity has been targeted by animal rights campaigners on ethical grounds for years, and plans already existed to phase the sector out in the Netherlands by 2024 before the coronavirus risk led to the process being accelerated last year. Similar steps have been implemented in Denmark, which before 2020 was the leading producer of mink in the world but culled millions of mink after a mutation was detected.
Travel:
The EU asks member states to strongly discourage travel
By now, it is completely clear that mobility facilitates the spread of coronavirus, and as the number of more virulent and potentially more dangerous variants increases, the need to prevent their spread makes it increasingly important that movement around the world be controlled in order to minimise the risk of spreading dangerous variants from country to country and protect the vulnerable population.
However, this also brings up many questions about the ethics of containment and the right to block movement, points which the EU is attempting to navigate whilst also balancing the economic implications of limiting movement with the need to protect human life.The European Commission has asked its 27 member states to take more measures to "strongly discourage" travel both within member states and between them and to third countries, to try to contain the contagion of new coronavirus variants, as well as calling for the creation of a new "dark red" category to identify the areas of greatest risk within Europe where the average incidence rate exceeds 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Although heads of state were in agreement that further measures were needed, the 27 were unable to agree whether travel between member states should be halted or if all external borders should be closed. “It is of great importance not to travel, but you cannot immediately enforce this legally,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, explaining that although most member states understood the need to reduce movement, they were unwilling to prevent it, but accepted it was vital to re-enforce the message that travel should not take place. “It is essential that we discourage travel in Europe as much as possible. Don’t travel, simply don’t travel,” he said.
Brussels believes that unnecessary displacements "should not occur at all" from or to countries that exceed the threshold of 500 infections per 100,000 across a period of fourteen days, and recommends that people who travel on trips deemed "essential" undergo a PCR test before departure and adhere to a strict fourteen-day quarantine upon arrival.
This week Portugal has adopted the advice and from today has closed its border for a 2 week period. From Sunday France has once again closed its borders to non-essential travel, but will allow hauliers and business travellers to continue working. Germany has also closed its borders to countries affected by covid mutations, which includes travellers from the UK, Portugal,Ireland, South Africa and Brazil.
Spain has also extended its own ban on UK nationals entering Spain unless they have full residency here, until February 16th. This takes effect from today, although as the UK has also banned travel, there should be no travel between the two countries other than residents returning to their place of residence.
Global tourism lost a billion tourists to the pandemic in 2020:
2020 was a disastrous year for the global economy as a whole due to the coronavirus pandemic and there is little doubt that one of the worst-affected sectors was tourism, an aspect of the on-going health crisis which is underlined in the latest barometer to be published this week by the World Tourism Organization.
The WTO reports that the number of international travellers dropped last year by a massive 74 per cent, a figure which equates to there having been 1,000 million fewer journeys from one country to another (1.5 billion in 2019, 381 million in 2020). In economic terms, this represents losses estimated at 1,300 million dollars, a figure more than 11 times higher than the one reported during the global economic crisis of 2009.
In addition, the organization warns that between 100 and 120 million jobs in the sector could be at risk worldwide, many of them in small or medium-sized businesses, although at the same time the report expresses hopes that as vaccines gradually reach more and more of the population travel restrictions can be lifted and activity can begin to resume. However, it is viewed as unlikely that pre-pandemic levels can be reached again before 2023 at the earliest.
6 years of economic growth in Spain wiped out by the pandemic: It is widely accepted that the national economy of Spain, like those of most other nations around the world, suffered its worst year on record in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and provisional data published on Friday by the government’s central statistics unit confirm this, reporting a massive drop of 11 per cent in GDP.
This is easily the sharpest fall in economic activity in Spain since comparable data were first produced in 1970, surpassing the drop of 3.8 per cent in 2009, and is thought to represent the worst economic crisis since the Civil War ended over 80 years ago.
The Active Population Survey for the final quarter of 2020, which was published on Thursday the by the Spanish government’s central statistics unit, shows that the number of jobs lost during the pandemic (calculated by comparing the data to those of the same period in 2019) was approximately 622,000 and that the number of people out of work rose by almost 528,000, or 16 per cent, but the Region of Murcia, where the rate of coronavirus infection was among the lowest in the country prior to the third wave of the pandemic, was one of very few in which the figures indicate a modest improvement.
During the year it is reported that the number of people out of work in the Region actually fell by 5,500 (or 4.7 per cent) to 111,700, while the figure detailing those in employment rose by 0.35 per cent (or 2,100) to 614,100. There are still many thousands of people in Murcia who are registered as being employed but are in fact on ERTE furlough schemes. When these schemes eventually end, a further revision will almost certainly show a sudden and significant increase in unemployment figures throughout the country.
The economic situation is undoubtedly part of the reason for changes in the migratory pattern published this week: More Spaniards emigrated to the UK than returned in early 2020 despìte Brexit uncertainty.
The data relate to the changes in Spain’s population in the first half of 2020, and although they therefore relate to before Britain’s departure from the EU, the figures relating to Spaniards in the UK may seem surprising. With obtaining work permits in the UK becoming a more complex process it might be supposed that fewer Spaniards would be choosing to live there, but in fact the statistics regarding Spanish people leaving and returning to the country show exactly the opposite.
Between January and June last year 40,898 Spanish nationals emigrated and the UK was their most popular destination, receiving 8,247 migrants (the next most commonly chosen nations were France and the USA). On the other hand, among the 23,906 Spanish nationals who returned to this country only 1,832 came from the UK, a total exceeded by the numbers returning from Venezuela and Argentina.
The total population of Spain at the end of June was 47,351,567, the highest figure yet, in spite of the number of deaths exceeding births by over 90,000 (261,616 as opposed to 167,559). The total rose as a result of far more migrants coming to this country (245,301) than Spaniards and foreign nationals emigrating abroad (131,445), and the resulting increases in population were most significant in the Balearics (0.37 per cent), the Canaries (0.33 per cent) and the Region of Murcia (0.28 per cent).
As a result of the migratory patterns the number of non-Spaniards living in Spain rose by almost 100,000 to 5,326,089, representing 11.25 per cent of the population, with the largest increases concerning those from Colombia (almost 28,000 more), Venezuela and Morocco. However, there were falls in the numbers of Ecuadorians, Rumanians and Bulgarians living in Spain.
UK nationals represent the third largest population group in Spain among non-Spaniards, and in the first half of 2020 the number rose by just 182 to 300,822, well short of the figures for Morocco (760,725) and Rumania (665,905).
Murcia Covid:
Last Saturday an emergency meeting of the Covid Monitoring Committee took the decision to turn over all resources of the health service to trying to fight the Coronavirus pandemic, so on Monday the health service began a process to competely re-organise its operations, suspending all non-urgent hospital activity, including surgery, so that only 40% of operating rooms will be allocated for other emergency operations, and 60% of hospital beds will be reserved for Covid patients. The resuscitation units, major outpatient surgery and operating rooms were all dedicated to Covid-19, enabling primary care teams to focus on the pandemic, changing all possible contact to telematic and phone. In this way, up to 350 ICU beds can be created, with the necessary personnel to manage them.
Some patients require months of hospital treatment once they enter intensive care, hence the concerns about the lack of ICU beds and longer-term allocation of staff and resources.
All ICU beds in the region which are normally used throughout the year are now full and patients are being diverted to spaces prepared for covid patients in alternative wards, such as those normally used for post-surgical care.
20 more artificial respirators delivered to overstretched Cartagena hospitals: SMS has this week supplied another 20 respirators to the University Hospital Complex of Cartagena for use by patients who require assistance in breathing at a cost of close to half a million euros as ICU beds reached 140% occupancy. Additional spaces have been opened to cope with the surge in intensive care admissions, but there has been a lack of equipment due to so many people requiring respiratory assistance.
The Covid Monitoring Committee met on Monday and agreed that additional restrictions would be imposed in 8 municipalities; from 6pm in the evening between Monday and Friday, all non-essential businesses must close and are also not allowed to open up at all during the weekend.
The exclusions given are for supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations and those offering a take-away food service.
The eight municipalities affected are: Yecla, Moratalla, Albudeite, Mula, Fortuna, Caravaca, Ricote and Jumilla.
Right across the region, the principal change is that the number of people permitted to gather anywhere is now limited to 2 people from different households. The only exclusion is in instances where a family unit exceeds 2 people, so parents and their children, for example, are allowed to go out together, but are not allowed to meet with another family member from a different household. So, a son can go and meet his mother in a public space, but is not permitted to go and meet the family of his sister, for example, if this makes the group meeting larger than 2 people. This measure has been added to resolve the issue that groups were gathering for sporting activities, such as playing golf, cycling in groups etc, but these activities are now limited to two people only.
This is applicable right across the region.
Other rules which remain in place:
No movement is permitted between municipalities other than for essential reasons.
The external perimeter boundary of the region is closed other for essential travel.
All bars and restaurants must remain closed other than those offering take-aways (the only exceptions being Aledo and Librilla which may open external terraces only). Premises offering take-aways are not allowed to serve any food or drink for consumption inside their premises or on their terraces; food must be consumed well away from the premises.
Masks must be worn outside of the home environment at all times.
The curfew begins at 22:00 and all residents must be inside their homes from this time onwards other than for justifiable reasons such as work, caring for a dependent, urgent trip to the pharmacy etc.
Other rules such as limited capacity in shops, shopping centres, places of worship, etc also apply, although businesses are permitted to continue offering their services as normal and there is no home confinement.
Of course, the rules have continued to be broken although police have stepped up enforcement:
Illegal fiesta broken up with more than 30 attendees in Las Torres de Cotillas; participants had travelled from Murcia, San Javier, Cartagena, Torre Pacheco, Molina de Segura, Lorca and even Marbella. Click to read
Águilas issues 8 sanctions for crossing the municipal borders over the weekend: Click to read
Two bars in Águilas denounced for ignoring closure order: Agents of the Águilas Local Police have registered a denuncia against two restaurants that continued to offer drinks at tables outside their businesses in spite of the closure order issued on January 13th by the regional government.
And there are lots more examples from right across the region.
The situation in the Murcia Region:
This week the total number of new cases diagnosed daily has been slowly descending, indicating that the strict measures in place to stem the spread of the virus by restricting contacts and movement of the population are gradually yielding results.
However, the situation has worsened in the hospitals of the region and the total number of deaths has been the highest this week since the pandemic began, concluding on Saturday with 24 more fatalities during the last 24 hours, exceeding the record set earlier in the week of 22, which was repeated again on Friday.
On Friday the 22 fatalities reported then took the region past the 1,000 deaths mark, and as of today the total is 1,041 deaths since the first case was detected in the region during March last year. The majority of the fatalities have occurred in the second and third waves, with January hit particularly hard.
Since last Friday 136 deaths have been reported, the worst week ever, but the number of new cases has fallen to 6,965 this week, a considerable drop when compared to the 12,212 of the previous week, showing that the virus is being brought under control in the region.
As of today, there are now 13,488 active cases within the region, 12,390 of which have mild or asymptomatic cases and are self-isolating at home and 1,098 hospitalised with more severe cases.
Of these, 176 are in intensive care and the hospitals of the region remain under significant pressure.
Although the Covid Monitoring Committee will meet again on Monday, the positive evolution of the number of new cases is unlikely to lead to any further restrictions, but is equally unlikely to lead to a lessening of restrictions as the 7 day accumulated incidence rate of 537 cases per 100,000 of population, and 1329 over 14 days is still extremely high and Murcia continues to be right at the top of the worst affected regions in Spain, along with neighbouring Alicante Province within the Valencia Region. Last week the AI rate was 776 over 7 days and 1584 over 14 days, so the decline in the number of new cases can be clearly seen in these latest figures.
The AI rate is starting to fall all over the region, although is still many times the level necessary to start bringing the pandemic under control. The worst affected area remains Yecla with a rate of 3,331 cases per 100,000, followed by Albudeite with 2,767, Moratalla with 2,742, Campos del Río 2,465, Mula 2,310 and Caravaca 2,096.
Aledo remains clear of cases, and the lowest figure is 226 for Librilla, although there is then a sharp rise to 559 in Totana. Every municipality except Aledo remains at a level considered “extreme risk”.
Data at a glance as reported on Saturday:
New positive cases reported in the last 24 hours: 742 (yesterday 896)
Confirmed cases since the beginning of the outbreak; 95,079
Total number of active cases: 13,488
Patients in home isolation with mild symptoms: 12,390
Total number of hospitalisations: 1,098 (+8)
Total number in ICU intensive care units : 176 (+1)
Total cured: 80,550
Total deaths: 1041 (+24)
Testing: total of 802,849 PCR and antigen tests and 91,716 serological tests to date
The closure of bars and restaurants is considered to be an essential part of the tools used to bring the rate of new infections down, but of course, the sector is less than happy about the situation. On Friday hostelry owners from Cartagena protested in front of the regional assembly, finally tipping all their invoices onto the floor in front of the regional parliament to "show the reality" of what the closures mean to their businesses.
Hostecar, which represents the hostelry sector of the municipality, says around 100 bars have been forced to close already as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic, and maintains that this figure could reach 350 unless more aid is given to the sector.
Aquí dejamos facturas de gastos, impuestos y las llaves de nuestros locales. #soshosteleria #cerradosperopagando pic.twitter.com/zmY4ix6eqI
— HOSTECAR (@HOSTECAR) January 29, 2021
The association says that the sector in Cartagena is "at its limit" and that the closure of their businesses is affecting all the families that depend on this sector on a personal level: "self-employed, waiters and suppliers, who have not been able to work 100% for almost a year and they won't be able to hold out much longer."
Market traders have also been protesting this week as some councils are once again restricting stalls to food only. This is the case in Mazarrón, which has announced a return to the style of market adopted during the first lockdown.
Moving forward:
Although virtually everything is currently restricted and there is no prospect of short-term relief from the restrictions, there is hope that the vaccine rollout will help to relieve the situation towards the latter part of the spring.
Murcia Town Hall enlarges logistical park alongside Corvera airport.
Plans have been approved by the Town Hall of Murcia to create a large logistical park close to the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera, occupying an area of over 1 million square metres.
Progress continues on the Amazon logistics and distribution centre which is being built alongside the motorway near the airport and Los Martínez del Puerto, and the modification of the regulations concerning the “El Merino” area free up the land concerned for other logistical platforms, industrial activities and services businesses. It is the Town Hall’s intention to encourage large multi-nationals to set up bases alongside Corvera, taking advantage of its excellent motorway and air communications and its proximity to the port of Cartagena.
Originally the park was designed to occupy around 300,000 square metres, but its capacity for growth has now been increased in response to an expected increase in demand. As a result, Amazon’s current project to complete a 17,000-square-metre building on a plot of 55,000m2 will be accompanied by two more warehouses, one quoted by the Town Hall as occupying 85,000m2.
The modified rules regarding development in the El Merino area also specify that green areas are to be left untouched and that a total of 2,132 free parking spaces are to be created.
The hope is that Amazon will now be joined by other major companies in Corvera, bringing more economic activity to the city of Murcia and the rest of the Region.
New camping resort planned in Águilas.
These are difficult times for the tourist industry in Spain, with the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic halting not only international but also most inter-regional travel, but looking ahead to the future the construction of an important new infrastructure in Águilas could provide a welcome boost for the sector in the south-west of the Costa Cálida.
Alannia Resorts have announced that they plan to continue expanding their operations along the Mediterranean coast of Spain with the creation of a new camping resort in Águilas, occupying an area of 80,000 square metres and containing 300 plots, bungalows, a swimming pool and all of the usual array of facilities at the various complexes run by the company. Alannia promote family tourism and their resorts feature plenty of space, entertainments, places to eat out, sports facilities and spa treatments, as well as embodying the brand’s commitment to sustainability.
At present the project is awaiting the official declaration of public interest which will allow construction to begin, a procedure which is made necessary by its planned location at the foot of the headland of Cabo Cope, near the 16th-century watchtower of Torre de Cope. This part of Águilas lies within a regional park and the restrictions on development frustrated proposals in the early part of this century to build a mega-resort named Marina de Cope.
Nevertheless, assuming that no development is proposed within 150 metres of the tower or too close to the shoreline, it is expected that work will start in the second half of this year with a view to opening in 2022. The overall investment required is budgeted at between 6 and 8 million euros.
This will be the sixth Alannia Resorts holiday complex and the first in the Region of Murcia, joining those in Guardamar and Crevillente in the province of Alicante and Mont-Roig del Camp, Hospitalet de L'Infant and Salou in Tarragona.
Cut in travelling times to and from Madrid as the AVE high-speed rail service nears the city of Murcia:
It has been confirmed that the AVE high-speed rail service between Madrid and Orihuela, in the south of the province of Alicante, is to come into service on Monday 1st February, and although no date has yet been set regarding the completion of the link to Murcia the operation of a shuttle service will make it possible to travel to the national capital from the city of Murcia in just 3 hours and 9 minutes.
This represents a reduction of 23 minutes from the current minimum journey time, and the shuttle train also operates connections to Cartagena and other stops on the Murcia-Cartagena line. The shaving of 29 minutes off the current journey between Madrid and Cartagena results in a new journey time of 4 hours and 9 minutes.
Other news:
Highest January temperature ever in Murcia on Friday; 28.7 degrees:
The stunning weather on Friday turned out to be the hottest January day on record, hitting 28.7 degrees Celsius in the capital city of the region, Murcia at 15.40 in the afternoon.
This was the second consecutive day for record-breaking temperatures, following the 27.8 degrees recorded on Thursday, which was in itself the highest temperature for 36 years; the previous record was 26 degrees on the 22nd January 2018.
Both Totana and Cieza also beat the record set on Thursday; Totana notched up 28 degrees at 16:10, Cieza managed 27.9 at 17:00 and both Puerto Lumbreras and Fuente Álamo were hot on the heels of the record as well, with 27.8.
This is a full 10-11 degrees hotter than is normal for January and although it is common to see walkers enjoying a stroll along the beach at this time of year, it’s not normal to see sunbathers soaking up a spot of sun at the end of January as was the case on Friday in La Azohía!
However, as is becoming incresingly common at the moment, the good weather also encouraged a further group of 10 irregular Algerian migrants to get in a boat and set sail for Spain; they were intercepted by the coastguard off the Cartagena coastline.
19 year old arrested in Fuente Álamo for knifepoint robberies. The young man concerned targeted commercial businesses. Click to read
Panic in Granada as earthquakes rock the city:The earthquakes were felt as far afield as Caravaca de la Cruz in the Murcia Region
3 tremors of up to 4.5 on the Richter scale in under 20 minutes and dozens of aftershocks
Thousands broke the curfew as they fled onto the streets
Thousands of people spilled out onto the streets of Granada on Tuesday night in defiance of the coronavirus curfew as the recent spate of seismic activity in the area continued, a series of consecutive tremors including three “big ones” in just 20 minutes between 9.35 and 9.55 in the evening.
3 terremotos en Granada en menos de 1 hora, más 1 esta mañana, 2 ayer, el domingo otros 2... Todo el mundo ahora mismo está saliendo a la calle súper asustado... Llevamos 12 terremotos en pocos días, esta situación realmente da MIEDO #TerremotoGranada pic.twitter.com/K67xSup0a9
— Magui 🌸 (@MariaUbi) January 26, 2021
The quakes continued to be focussed around the area of Santa Fe, Atarfe and Chauchina, a few kilometres west of the city, and following the significant tremor measuring 4.4 which was recorded on Saturday those on Tuesday evening included three which measured 4.2, 4.2 and 4.5 on the mbLg scale (very similar to the Richter scale at these levels). The most intense of these was felt as far away as Marbella to the west and Caravaca de la Cruz, in the Region of Murcia, to the east.
There have now been approximately 300 recorded seismic events in the area since the start of December and experts state that they cannot rule out the possibility that the activity might lead to a major tremor in what is known to be one of the most seismically active zones of the Iberian Peninsula.
The tremors continued throughout Friday and Saturday.
So at the moment, there's very little moving in Spain apart from the ground in Granada, and the severe restrictions are starting to bring down the number of new covid cases just a little, bringing hope that there may be further stabilisation this week.
The row over lack of vaccines is set to continue running this week, the latest updates on the situation indicating that although the EU has backed down regarding export of doses to Northern Ireland, it intends to continue with plans to impose export controls on vaccines manufactured within the bloc. This effectively gives EU countries the power to deny authorisation for vaccine exports if the company manufacturing them has not honoured existing EU contracts, so this could be applied to the Pfizer vaccines manufactured in Belgium.
The most important point for British nationals living here in Spain to bear in mind, is that the current situation will lead to a slower roll-out than had been anticipated, so our own vaccines will come later than had been predicted, which will in turn, limit the resumption of international travel and all that this implies. So for the moment, be patient, sit tight and limit the number of contacts!