Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin 22nd August

Image 1; A glorious sunset this week

There's no escaping from Covid this week. We don´t want to hear it, any of us, but the number of positive cases has reached a record high in the Region of Murcia and is climbing significantly in Spain as a whole once again.

The impact of measures to try and restrict the spread of the virus is visible, and certainly all those in the tourism and hostelry sectors have been left in no doubt this week that the autumn will be complicated. Of course, there are some on social media who continue to deny the severity of the pandemic, but as economists have been warning for the last few months; it's not the earthquake of covid that's going to cause the most damage, it's the economic tsunami that will follow. For many expats this will translate into the inconvenience of cancelled flights, having to find a different place to eat as their local bar has closed down, having to wear a mask when meeting friends or finding the pool on their urbanisation closed, but for business owners and those working here and depending on the tourism sector, it's altogether a different scenario.

The summer tourism season is coming to a somewhat limp conclusion and preparations are now underway to prepare as far as possible for a potential rise in cases, the authorities preparing to take whatever measures are necessary to deal with the situation:

Covid Murcia

Saturday 15th: 2 deaths, 120 new cases, Active cases 1395. Click to read

Sunday 16th: 140 new cases, total 1490.Click to read

Monday 17th: 78 cases, total 1506.Click to read

Tuesday 18th: 86 new cases, Click to read

Wednesday 19th: 135 new cases. Fourth death within a week, A 10 year old is in hospital in Cartagena with Covid symptoms. The health ministry continues to try and ram home the message that although the symptoms are generally milder amongst young people, that there can be, and aften are, complications in younger people and 6.5% of those who have tested positive in the Murcia Region since the pandemic began have been in the under 14’s age group.

1.9% of those cases have required hospital treatment but the 10 year old in the Santa Lucía at the moment is the only child in this age group to have been hospitalised in the last 2 weeks.

Thursday 20th: 97 new cases. Total 1674.

First positives appear after wedding, sparking fears of a fairly major outbreak
The first four cases of Covid have appeared amongst the 200 people who attended a wedding at which the groom was later diagnosed positive.The groom was one of the 25 positives diagnosed as part of an outbreak at the Centro de Menores in Alguazas. When he was found to be positive, all of the guests, plus the 20 odd waiters who had worked at the event were tested and four of those present have now been diagnosed as positive. The restaurant has now been closed for a quarantine period and extensive testing is being undertaken amongst contacts of the guests to avoid a major outbreak.

One of those invited to the wedding reported to the Cadena SER radio station that he had been sacked from his job after telling his boss he had to take 14 days off in order to observe quarantine. The company that fired him alleged he was being sacked for “poor productivity”.

This type of situation is one of the reasons why those undertaking track and trace operations are meeting resistance amongst those from whom they are requesting known contacts, fear of costing a friend a job or causing them problems, dissuading many from sharing details of their known contacts.

Guardia Civíl officer and his family test positive in Guardia accommodation in Cartagena
One agent, who works from Los Alcázares and his family are reported to be in quarantine after father and two sons tested positive for Covid-19.The officer and his family live in the cuartel de la Benemérita of Cartagena in calle Ángel Bruna, in which 300 family members of personnel live.The man is reported to have contracted the virus whilst on holiday and immediately self-isolated, along with his family.The situation is said to be “under control”.

The number of positives in the Cartagena municipality has been quietly increasing and on Friday the town hall announced that it was installing a "Punto Covid" testing point in the El Peral district to enable more PCR tests to be undertaken.

Friday 21st; 155 new cases. total cases 1757.

During the last 7 days the number of cases in the Murcia region has risen by 450 cases, from 1307 to 1757, the highest level recorded at any point.

It’s a scenario the authorities had desperately hoped to avoid, but with still 2 weeks to go before children are due to return to school, the numbers of covid cases in not only the region of Murcia, but also Spain as a whole, continue to rise to levels not seen since the height of the pandemic.

In the Murcia region, every case is a new record high, and on Friday the record high was not only the number of cases recorded to date, but also the largest number of cases recorded in a single day, with 155 new cases.

The Region of Murcia has quintupled Covid hospital admissions since July 19th, going from 21 hospitalized on that date to 106 last Wednesday, while the number of patients in the ICU has gone from one to 15 in the same period.

As of Friday, we now have 112 patients in hospital and 15 in intensive care, with a further 1645 patients in home isolation.

The number of fatalities has risen by four this week to 155 and the total of individuals cured has risen to 2,368. In addition, a further 1706 people have tested positive for antibodies, but are no longer positive, so technically, these can also be added to the number of cured.

This is the spread of new cases diagnosed by PCR in the last 14 days by municipality as of WEDNESDAY:

As can be seen from the figures above, the principal problem areas are Lorca, Murcia city and Cartagena, with outbreaks noticeably starting to appear in other municipalities. Very often the cases link municipalities; the first cases in what is a developing outbreak in Mula came from the Totana outbreak,  the Lorca cases stemmed from the Murcia city Atalayas leisure zone outbreak, which in turn came from the Bolivian outbreak. Although Totana is now out of confinement, cases have appeared in neighbouring municipalities and the numbers are growing quickly in Fuente Álamo, Alhama, Molina de Segura, Mula and Torre Pacheco.

Detection and quarantine of cases, as mentioned above, is key, and for that reason "Punto Covid" testing points are carrying out mass testing to identify positives, particularly looking out for asymptomatics who may be spreading the virus without realising it.

In Murcia City there are now several of these points.More than half a million people live in the city and its outlying districts.

Murcia municipality includes the main urban city, as well as a large area surrounding the capital itself which spreads out as far as Corvera and Sucina and across a large area known as the "huerta", which includes many outlying districts in the large flat river valley heading towards the Alicante border with Orihuela.

The virus has been spreading principally in residential districts in the centre of the city and in the outlying areas which run along the bottom of the Sierra of Carrascoy and are popular residential areas.
To try and halt its progress, more COVID-19 testing points are being opened in areas in which larger numbers of cases are being recorded.

The "hot spots" in Murcia right now are El Carmen, El Infante, Floridablanca, Ronda Sur, Puente Tocinos and Beniaján, and the council aims to call younger patients for tests. Data collected in recent days shows that the average age of infections in the municipality of Murcia is 33 years and that half of the positives are between 18 and 35, stemming from the Atalayas leisure zone outbreak. Of course, the key problem is that younger people are transmitting the virus to those who are more vulnerable, particularly in a  domestic environment, where the majority of contagions are now taking place.

Health data show that there are currently 40 residents of Murcia admitted to hospitals for covid and that the health centers of the municipality are monitoring more than 3,500 people who are quarantined due to being infected or being in direct contact with a positive person.

The biggest problem comes when these people break their quarantine, a situation which is occurring an estimated thirty times every day in Murcia.

The Local Police will be increasing their vigilance over these residents who are geolocated by neighborhoods and apartments and in the event that they are repeat offenders, the Health service can report them to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

This is a major problem all over the country, as once the state of emergency ended, there is no legislation which gives automatic power of confinement, and there is no specific criminality to breaching a quarantine order; there are calls nationally for this to become a criminal offence, but at the moment, enforcing quarantine orders is becoming a significant problem for the authorities.

The local council has launched a  'Local Action Plan against the Increase in Epidemiological Risk in the city which encompasses a raft of measures including working through social services to shop for those in confinement to minimise the chances of them breaking quarantine, police vigilance, lots of safety measures in public areas, increased cleaning and a commitment to keep public transport and services operating normally.

Cartagena is about to open its first Punto Covid in the Barrio Peral, a residential area in the centre of the city as its cases are now rising steadily. Cartagena has the additional problem of the "pateras", boats containing irregular migrants, all of which are taken into the Escombreras docks for covid testing and these cases are added into the Cartagena total, which has grown considerably due to this factor in the last month due to the sheer volume of boats currently arriving.

Lorca has suffered two major outbreaks, both linked to nocturnal leisure bars, but the virus is now spreading out through the contacts of those original cases and there are two Punto Covid in Lorca. Some restrictions have been placed on the capacity of bars in the city, although at the moment no further measures are deemed necessary.

Elsewhere, the cases have fallen back considerably in Mazarrón, although there are still pockets of cases appearing linked to the original outbreak in a fruit factory.

Everywhere, the emphasis remains on testing, identification, isolation and then contact tracing and the number of contact tracers has been increased again.

The national Government supported Covid tracking app. is proceeding to roll-out. Testing has got underway in four mainland regions of Spain and the app has gone fully active active in the Canary Islands. On Friday afternoon the Canary Islands became the first autonomous community to launch the Radar COVID mobile application to track possible coronavirus infections amongst its population. In a statement, the departments of Health and Public Administrations, Justice and Security of the regional government  reported that the app had become operational from this Friday throughout the archipelago as the islands ramp up efforts to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

The RadarCOVID app is now in the testing phase in Andalucía, Cantabria, Aragón and Extremadura,
the first to have the development fully operational once the technical integration process between the application and their health systems has been completed.

On Wednesday the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System approved an agreement so that the autonomous communities that are finishing this adaptation process can begin to operate in tests

This is the first step in the national implementation plan of the application. As of today, the application already has about two million downloads in its versions for Android and iOS operating systems. Click for full article

Hospitals: During the week the regional hospitals began to progressively open Covid wards.

During the main weeks of lockdown cases were treated in all health areas of the region, but as the numbers dwindled the patients were all moved to just two hospitals; the Santa Lucía in Cartagena and the Virgen de la Arrixaca in Murcia in order to focus the resources into these two locations.

However, with the numbers of patients increasing, wards are once again being re-opened to cater for a larger number of patients, in anticipation that the numbers requiring hospital treatment in the autumn will increase. To begin with, wards were opened in the health areas which concentrate the largest numbers of covid patients, namely the Reina Sofía and the Morales Meseguer in Murcia city, joining the Virgen de la Arrixaca, the Santa Lucía in Cartagena and the Rafael Méndez in Lorca, but by the end of the week all of the major hospitals had also opened including the Los Arcos in san Javier, as well as the hospitals  in Cieza and Yecla.

Surgery: At the moment the hospitals in the region are on summer schedules, so there is very limited surgical activity; only cases which have been waiting a longer period of time are reaching operating theatres and those considered to be a priority. No low priority operations are taking place at the moment.

Normally the surgical schedule is increased during the autumn, but should the number of covid cases rise as is expected, then the same schedule will be observed in order to ensure that priority is given to the patients requiring the most urgent attention, and at the moment there is no plan to resume non-urgent operations.

The Murcia Region weathered the first wave of Covid very well, due principally, a study published on Saturday morning reveals, to the early lockdown which stopped the virus spreading quickly and the policy of isolating patients at home and preventing them from going to emergency services and health centres and spreading the virus to other sick people.

During the first wave of covid, the region succeeded in flattening the curve of the infections in four weeks, whereas it took 40 days at national level to flatten out after the national lockdown began.The virus also came late to the region, giving time for the health service to prepare, and the numbers were low; Murcian hospitals only had to use one in seven beds for covid cases, whereas in other areas such as Madrid and Castilla La Mancha, hospitals were totally overwhelmed. The graph below shows how patients are currently distributed amongst the regional hospitals, the bulk of them in the capital and Cartagena, with all hospitals now handling Covid patients:

Murcia: Maximum occupancy of 50% in vehicles from Saturday.

Murcia has resumed the restrictions used in phase 2. In brief, this means that in private passenger cars all of the seats can be occupied if those travelling all live in the same house. If they do not, then the maximum occupancy is 50% of the capacity of the vehicle. So, the whole family can go to the shops, no problem, BUT if  a friend wants to come shopping, who lives in another house, then only 50% of the seats in the vehicle may be occupied.We have already had calls in the office from people asking about picking up family from the airport. If your car only has 4 seats and you need to pick up 2 people from the airport, then take documentation proving that this is what you are doing, and GENERALLY the police will be understanding. HOWEVER, only one person should go for the pick-up, it's not a good idea for a couple to both go if you want the police to be understanding. Otherwise, borrow a bigger car as there are TWO households in the car. In the case of there being two households in the car, masks must be worn when travelling. Masks do NOT need to be worn the occupants are from the same household.

Public transport, coaches etc, are now limited to 50% of their capacity and masks must be worn.This of course, has caused uproar amongst bus companies and many of those operating private tours and excursions have cancelled trips as they are no longer commercially viable.

This week we also had the implementation of new measures designed to limit the spread of covid, so discos, all nocturnal leisure venues were closed down and there has been a lot of upset about music venues. This is a topic we've been unwilling to touch, as yet again, the wording of the BORM is so ambiguous that a lot of the enforcement of this is left entirely to the interpretation of the local police force concerned and some are being more understanding than others. Last time we tried to explain that this was the situation (regarding the wearing of masks in bars) we were absolutely lambasted on social media by angry bar owners who didn´t want to accept that technically, clients should have worn masks when seated at tables and only removed them to eat and drink as that's what the regional president had said. In the end, public opposition was so overwhelming that many local police gave up walking into bars and telling people to put their masks on and left the public alone as long as they were seated at a table. In this case, the ban is on music venues, specifically, but live music in bars is being shut down right across the region. Technically, only professional artists, with licences, are allowed to perform and permission must be given by the health authority for an event to take place, but in most cases, bars have just cancelled everything, as they're unwilling to risk the police walking in and shutting them down, which has happened this week in some venues around the Mar Menor and Torre Pacheco area.

It's a bitter blow for the hostelry sector, which is fighting to stay afloat, facing a combination of the three month lockdown during which they earned nothing but still had to pay overheads, effects caused by the UK quarantine, which is devastating local tourism, problems with flights, fear of holidaying this year, and fear of crowded spaces, the result being less people in bars. It hurts to say it, but it's going to get worse this autumn for these businesses and it's unavoidable that some of them will close, staff lose their jobs and entertainers struggle to remain solvent.It's brutal, and the same situation is facing all of those working in the tourism sector and the businesses supplying them with products and services. More on tourism below.

We've also had a ban on smoking in public places and streets imposed; smokers are not allowed to smoke within 2 metres of anyone else, again, an unpopular measure with some.

A situation has arisen this week in Madrid in which a judge has overturned this imposition (and all of the block of measures agreed nationally last week), saying that the regional government cannot impede the civil liberties of the public without the state imposing a state of emergency. He insisted that the regional government can request that the state declare a local state of emergency and then has the power to impose these changes, and that is the mechanism which should be used.The regional government of Madrid is appealing the decision, but in Valencia a judge has thrown out an appeal against the same conditions made by the hostelry sector saying that the bans are in the public interest and stand, highlighting what a mess the national legislation is governing Covid measures.

The Prime Minister returned from his holiday on Friday afternoon, his press office denying that he had cut short his holiday, although that statement has been called questionable by more than one source, surprised that any PM would have planned to come back from his holiday half way through a Friday afternoon, never mind it being the day on which the worst figures for months have been recorded and there are major problems with covid erupting all over the place.

On Saturday morning the PM denied that he would be imposing a state of emergency any time soon, but the need to do something about the legal problems being experienced by all the regional governments controlling quarantines and imposing the measures necessary to control the population will need to be addressed rapidly as we head towards the start of the school year.

This is also proving problematic all over the country, and measures proposed this week are being rejected by unions and parent associations, with strikes threatened, so we'll wait a week before focusing on what the return to school will look like as it's highly likely to suffer a number of modifications before it actually happens, although it does appear that children will be facing a semi-presencial return to school, with reduced hours so that classes can be socially distanced, and part of their tuition online.

Covid Spain

So much is happening at the moment, it's difficult to keep the bulletin concise, so rather than discuss what's happened by day, we'll look at overall totals for the week.

Comparing the figure from last Friday which was 342,813 to that of this Friday, the total number of  cases added to the totals in the last week is 43,241, or 6,177 a DAY, a significant rise on the total of the previous week which was 28,451.

The total number of deaths to date is 28,838. Generally, the deaths are in single figures on a daily basis, although on Wednesday alone there were 127 deaths recorded, mainly due to a backlog as the Aragón region, one of the worst affected at the moment, had not registered its deaths for several days due to a technical problem.

What is clear is that there is a substantial rise in cases across Spain and the rate of infections is clearly accelerating.

On Thursday the national Health Ministry admitted that “things aren´t going well,” and accepted that the "epidemic is out of control in some parts of the country" and all week there have been dozens of headlines every day from the various regions, where the outbreaks are increasing on a daily basis.

Madrid is once again starting to register increasing numbers of cases, and on Friday the Madrid Deputy Minister of Public Health, Antonio Zapatero, recommended that the inhabitants of the region "stay at home" in the areas most affected by the region's pandemic.

Madrid continues to be the region of Spain with the highest number of new cases; the official totals by the Spanish Health Ministry report 1199, but the Madrid regional government itself reports twelve deaths and 1,004 infections, to which another 2,878 PCR positives dating from previous days must be added, which have now been incorporated into the count .

In total, since the start of the pandemic the Community of Madrid has reported 9,332 deaths in hospitals with coronavirus and 106,215 positives. Hospitals are already starting to feel the strain. The percentage of PCR tests on patients who test positive has skyrocketed, indicating that the transmission of Covid is increasingly widespread in the Community. “One out of every five tests done in large hospitals is positive, when just two weeks ago it was a fifth of that level. The level of concern is maximum ”, said a senior health official. There are already many cases reported in residencias, and although the city is attempting to impose measures and undertake mass PCR testing, there is concern about the speed of the increase in cases.

One of the major news stories this week related to a demonstration against Covid in Madrid on Sunday, attended by around 3,000 protestors, most of whom didn´t wear masks or social distance. It caused a great deal of upset and anger. Many of those attending denied that covid even exists, and protested that the measures only serve to limit the freedoms of citizens.

They accused the Government of "violating human rights", because "healthy people should not wear masks, "which they consider to be " real torture. "Many others carried banners proclaiming slogans such as: "the system controls through fear and the press manipulates"; "Covid does have a cure but it is prohibited, they do not want to protect you" .There was also criticism of the other measures recently implemented by the Ministry of Health to curb the outbreaks throughout Spain, with banners bearing messages such as: "I am part of the more than 200,000 workers who pay their bills working in the leisure sector at night" or "artists also have to eat. "The government delegate to Madrid said that those who breached the law and “ endangered the health of Madrid," would be punished "with the utmost severity".

Although accepting the fundamental right to demonstrate the "appropriate measures" would be taken against the protestors who broke the law. He explained in an interview with the Cadena Ser radio station that the protest had not been broken up as it was considered that " it would have been worse to dissolve it or initiate a police charge.”Franco insisted that "it is unacceptable and extremely serious" what happened in the rally yesterday and that “action will be taken accordingly.” Police have identified many of the protestors through social media posts and sanctions are being issued accordingly. The medical profession was deeply offended by the messaging of the rally, and issued a statement saying that denying the existence of Covid-19 is a lack of respect for the medical profession and for all those medical staff who have died caring for the victims of covid.There was huge media coverage of the subject for several days, most of it condemning those who continue to deny what is happening in Spain at the moment and use mis-information to deter other people from taking precautions to protect themselves and their families. Again, this week, significant resource is being directed towards younger people, trying to persuade them against the gatherings which are pereptuating the cycle of contagion. On Thursday Fernando Simón even suggested that Influencers could play a part in spreading the message to a sector of the population which is playing a key part in the transmission of the virus.

Other measures were announced such as those in Nerja in Andalucía and Orihuela in Alicante, closing beaches off at night to try and stop young people gathering for parties.

Catalonia is also implementing mass screening and measures to restrict capacity in markets for example, as well as maintaining restrictions in key areas.

The Basque Country has declared a health emergency this week and on Friday the Valencia province also declared a health emergency enabling it to prepare a combined response drawing in resources to tackle increasing numbers of cases

All across Spain a similar picture is unfolding. It's impossible for a product with our resources to write up everything that's happening, just a few examples here of articles this week illustrating some of the points to show what is happening;

27 nuns from the same residencia test positive in Huesca, Aragón: Click here 

Number of positives in Almería nursing home increase to 82. Click here

There are growing problems in residencias again. Some regions are imposing bans on visiting in care homes, others are making employees take PCR tests and daily temperature tests, but there are now many cases across the country again. This pushes up the fatalities rate as those aged 70 plus are more susceptible to the severe effects of Covid and the death rate is considerably higher.

Supplies of Remdesivir in Spain about to run out due to increased cases; more supplies should be available within a week: Click here

Andalusia recruits 120 tracers and telephone support staff to monitor Covid cases: all across the country more is being invested into contact tracing and this is just one of several such stories this week. Click here

Confinement order issued in Villamalea, Albacete, with 99 cases of covid-19. Local confinement orders are becoming more frequent as individual regions work at a local level to suppress outbreaks. this one is in Albacete, which borders with Murcia. Click here

In other areas residents are voluntarily self-isolating.The residents of the Cordovan town of Montalbán have taken the decision themselves to lock down : Click here

There are some cracks of light: 145 days in intensive care; Valencia covid patient moves down to the general ward Click to read

Minister of Equality asks for brothels to be closed in Spain due to Covid; Castilla La Mancha, Catalonia and the Region of Murcia oblige.

On Friday the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, sparked a political storm after sending a request to the Governments of the autonomous regions of Spain to close brothels and hostess clubs as part of reinforcement measures to combat coronavirus.

The Minister justified her decision in an interview with radio nacional, saying that closing hostess clubs and stopping prostitution in brothels "will be fundamental" for the control of coronavirus outbreaks, since "tracking is more difficult" in prostituted women and it is necessary to "guarantee their rights."Her request has drawn criticism from prominent feminists, who consider that the justification should not be the pandemic but the rights and dignity of women. Both members of the PSOE and well-known feminists have condemned the Podemos Unidos minister for approaching the measure from a health perspective.

Socialist deputy Andrea Fernández said, "Brothels are centers of slavery rather than sources of contagion," she commented on her social network.

In fact, she added that they should be closed "insofar as they are places for the exploitation of human beings", so "they must be eradicated forever, not closed because they pose a danger in terms of contagion."

Click for the full article. By Friday evening Castilla la Mancha, Catalonia and the Region of Murcia had all responded by announcing the closure of brothels in their regions.

Tourism

Predicted tourism losses in Spain rise to nearly 99 billion during 2020 due to Covid

The Covid crisis is wreaking havoc in the Spanish tourism sector, as one blow after another hits activities, locations and different types of businesses, the combination of fear of Covid, measures imposed by the national and regional Spanish governments, as well as restrictions on travel by international governments piling up one on top of another to make viable business activity virtually impossible.

The Alliance for Tourism Excellence (Exceltur) foresees that 2020 will close with a drop in activity (direct + indirect: Tourism GDP) of -98,753 M €, an additional -15,620 M € over and above the -83,134 M € already predicted in June, before the latest resurgence in Covid cases nationwide.

The figure equates to a -64.7% fall in business activity when compared to 2019.

This decrease in tourist activity would explain more than half of the fall of -15.1% of the entire Spanish economy in 2020 according to the higher risk scenario anticipated by the Bank of Spain in June and in line with that foreseen by other official international institutions.

Hence, the latest OECD estimate places Spain as the developed country with the economy hardest hit by the fall in tourism.

84% of this downward revision, both for the summer and for the end of the year, is due to the falls in external demand from the main emitting countries. Virtually all of the Schengen border countries now either recommend against travelling to all or parts of Spain or have placed quarantine or testing restrictions on travellers, leading to a direct fall in demand; the 14 day quarantine imposed by the UK Government, followed by the recommendation of the German Government not to travel to Spain (except canaries) have both impacted heavily on reservations.

Broken down by quarter, they anticipate a fall of -36,638 M € in tourism activity in the third quarter and of - 18,655 M € in the fourth, which will be added to the -43,460 M € already accumulated until June. These data represent falls of -63.3% in tourist activity in the third quarter and -58.1% in the last quarter of 2020 vs. 2019.

Sales and cancellation data point to an early closure of the summer season and as case numbers rise and the enforced closure of nocturnal leisure venues impacts on bookings, the sector can expect many businesses to become unviable once the Spanish domestic season ends, leading to an impact of unprecedented dimensions at the end of the summer on employment.

At the end of July and in the middle of the season, there were already 823,000 fewer employees in the sector (-37.4% vs. 2.2 million in July 2019). According to the SEPE employment services, 517,000 workers are still technically employed through the ERTE scheme although not actively working and 306,000 fewer temporary staff have been employed this summer (-67% in accommodation, -87% in travel agencies, -81% in transport, - 46% in restaurants and -45.2% leisure venues).Click for full article

Double blow to Spanish tourism as two German giants cancel all holidays to Spain:

Spain's international traffic fell by 80% in July and accumulates a -71.4% loss

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is reflected for the fifth consecutive month in the air traffic figures for July and the number of arrivals of international flights bound for Spain.

In the first month of the high summer season, in which the sector had high hopes of starting a recovery and the airlines increased their number of flights, only 2.1 million passengers arrived in the country on international flights, 80% less than in the same month of the previous year.

According to the data released this Thursday by Turespaña, low cost airlines were used by more than 1.28 million of these passengers, 61.1% of the total, a figure that represents a decrease of 78.6%, although they exceeded traditional companies that transported the remaining 38.9%, 818,257 travelers, who recorded 81.8% less than in July 2019.

Between January and July, Spain accumulated international traffic of 15.6 million passengers, 71.4% less than in the same period of the previous year.

Wizz Air expands routes between Spain and the United Kingdom in October: New route from Lanzarote to London Gatwick. Click to read.

Belgium prohibits non-essential travel to Madrid, the Basque Country, Burgos, the Balearic Islands and Almería. The list of countries banning travel, recommending against travel to all of Spain or specific areas, or insisting on PCR tests from returning travellers is increasing on a daily basis. This is just one example. Click here

Austria enforces quarantine or covid test for travellers from the Balearic Islands. Click here

Two drunken Brits arrested on Tenerife-Madrid flight for refusing to wear masks. This is not an isolated case, just one of many such stories reported in the Spanish media this week: Click here

Only August cruise ship for Cartagena cancelled as Spanish ports remain closed:

In the early days of the pandemic some of the first cases which really caught the eye of the travelling public were those on cruise ships

The British-registered Diamond Princess was the first cruise ship to report a major outbreak on board, and as a result the vessel was quarantined in Yokohama from 4th February 2020 for approximately one month. Over 700 people became infected, and 14 people died.

Governments and ports responded by preventing many cruise ships from docking and advising people to avoid travelling on cruise ships. Many cruise ship operators cancelled their operations to mitigate the spread of the pandemic and by May 2nd,over 40 cruise ships had reported confirmed positive cases of coronavirus on board

The Spanish Government banned cruise ships from docking in Spanish ports, adversely affecting the tourism sector and retail sales in the centre of Cartagena, which has worked for years to build a cruise ship tourism industry.

It had been hoped that by the end of August the ban could be lifted, and the only vessel scheduled for August be permitted to dock on August 28th ahead of the normally busy autumn season.

The World Explorer (a cruise ship operated by German operator Mystic Cruises) carrying 200 passengers, was scheduled to call in at La Coruña, Seville, Malaga and Cartagena, but although authorizations were requested from the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Foreign Health, permission has been denied due to the ongoing Covid Pandemic and the first cruise ship of the autumn season has been cancelled.

There are still several vessels scheduled to visit Cartagena during September should the situation change; the Britannia with 4,400 passengers on September 8th and 22nd, on the 23rd the Seadream I, with 118 tourists and on the 24th the World Voyager -400 passengers- and Costa Fascinosa -with 3,617-, are still showing as possibles on the cruise ship schedule, although should the epidemic continue to evolve in a similar fashion, the ports of Spain may continue resolutely shut to cruise ship passengers during the most important months of the year.

Ryanair pilots in Spain accept a 4-year pay cut to save jobs:

On Monday Ryanair finally officially announced that it would be cutting flights by 20% during September and October, one of the countries worst affected by its decision being Spain, principally due to the fall in bookings caused by the 14 day quarantine imposed by the British government.

Spain has always been one of the most important markets for the airline, which is one of many struggling to cope with the fall-out from the Covid crisis, and although demand for flights in the short-term has been significantly affected by the covid pandemic, the maintenance of a skilled workforce is also important for the anticipated acceleration in demand once the immediate challenges of covid have been resolved.

The Spanish Union of Airline Pilots (Sepla) and Ryanair announced on Tuesday that they have signed an agreement through which the pilots' salary is reduced by 20% for four years in exchange for the commitment of the Irish low cost airline to maintain their jobs, due to the forecasted very slow recovery of the airline sector.Click to read

Balearic Islands bans party boats and pool parties: The Balearic Islands Government has announced a ban on party boats and daytime parties in swimming pools due to the increase of covid cases in recent weeks. The sale of alcoholic beverages on boats is also restricted, both for transportation between islands and for excursions.

In addition, the Department of Health and Consumption will test workers and customers of bars and restaurants where coronavirus outbreaks occur.

Last weekend the 17 autonomous regions of Spain agreed a generalised ban on the opening of discos, bars de copas and music venues, following on from the ban on night clubs and nocturnal leisure venues, so by now, the attraction of some of the famed night-life venues on the islands will have totally evaporated, leaving partygoers having to work hard to even find a drink past midnight.

The president of the Acotur tourist businesses association, Pepe Tirado, says that "the season is lost".
Last week the German government included the Balearic Islands in a generalised recommendation against travel to Spain, and insisting that anyone returning from Spain take a PCR test.

On Sunday TUi and DER Turistik cancelled all holidays to mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands.

"Germany's decision is the final blow. In a week we will be in ICU (intensive care). They have eliminated us from the market, and tourists will choose other destinations

Jesús Sánchez of the Abone nightlife businesses association said, “I don't even want to imagine what the winter will be like."

Irregular migrants

On Friday evening and Saturday morning twelve boats containing a total of 138 migrants were detected off the Cartagena coastline.
3 of the migrants had to be rescued by firemen and a helicopter from the regional CEIS fire and rescue service after their boat landed in a rocky area with poor access and they attempted to climb Monte de las Cenizas.
The two men and one woman had to be airlifted from the side of the mountain.

Seven of the new arrivals later tested positive for covid.

As the week wore on there were three further lots of arrivals; on Wednesday evening 37 migrants reached Murcia in three boats; on Wednesday morning ten out of 30 were detained after a boat landed on El Portús beach at 11am in the morning and its occupants scattered in the surrounding coutryside, much to the surprise of beachgoers. Police only managed to locate 10 of the 30 in the boat, three of whom tested positive for covid. The others were never located.

On Thursday evening a further 48 migrants arrived in four boats. The interceptions took place after 10 pm, when four boats with 8, 11, 14 and 15 irregular migrants on board, respectively, were sighted southeast of Monte de las Cenizas, in Cartagena.

Other news:

Illegal burning of prunings behind fire that devastated 40 hectares in Lorca last week. Time after time human negligence is found to be the cause of the forest fires which devastate vast tracts of Spain every summer, and investigators in Lorca have ascertained that the fire in the area of La Carrasquilla in the Sierra de Almenara in Lorca last week was caused by a local man burning agricultural waste. Causing a forest fire through negligence is punishable within the Penal Code and those convicted can face substantial fines or prison terms of one to 5 years, depending on the extent of the fire. In the eventuality of having caused a risk to life, the prison sentence can be between 10 and 20 years.

Work to install first bathing jetty in Los Urrutias to begin on Monday:A project which has been more than three years in the making will finally begin construction on Monday 24th August as work begins on the first of five bathing jetties in the Mar Menor.