Date Published: 03/09/2020
ARCHIVED - 430 Covid cases in 24 hours, another record for Murcia as the region passes 4,000 cases
ARCHIVED ARTICLE This is the highest daily total since the pandemic began and a record high
Unfortunately, Murcia has had another record beating day, but it’s not a record that will go down in the annals of history as being something to be celebrated in the future.
In the last 24 hours the number of new covid cases has increased by 430, pushing the regional total of active cases past 4,000 to 4,202.
Since the pandemic began, there have been 9,565 cases in the region.
Of the 430 new cases detected, 109 correspond to the municipality of Murcia, 62 to Lorca, 33 to Cartagena, 28 to Jumilla, 25 to Totana, 23 to Molina de Segura, 23 to Torre Pacheco, 15 to San Javier, 12 to Archena, 9 to Alcantarilla, 9 to Mazarrón, 9 to San Pedro del Pinatar, 8 to Caravaca, 7 to Fuente Álamo, 6 to Moratalla, 6 to Mula, and 5 to Bullas. The remainder are scattered around the region in smaller quantities.
These are all significant increases and had they occurred during the de-escalation period, there is no doubt that any of the municipalities named above would have been put straight back into confinement to try and nip the contagions in the bud.
But the virus has now reached a level of general transmission in several municipalities and trying to contain individual outbreaks is becoming increasingly difficult as tracers are finding it impossible to trace the contacts of every single case due to the sheer overwhelmng numbers involved.
Earlier this week the regional minister for health, Manuel Villegas, met with representatives from the Armed Forces who are co-ordinating the allocation of army-trained tracers who will assist in regional efforts to trace known contacts of those who are contagious, to establish how the project will move forward within the next few days as the tracers are incorporated into the system currently operating.
Yesterday the regional minister was highly critical of the population; in his appearance in the Regional Assembly yesterday, the Minister of Health, Manuel Villegas, strongly criticised “citizen irresponsibility”, the main culprit, according to him, of the second wave of cases. Villegas explained that " 48% of current cases originate in leisure activities such as dinners with friends, 28% originate at work and 28% in nightlife” and tracking work is extremely difficult because "in 30% of the follow-ups the link cannot be determined because those affected do not say where they have been, and it is because they have been to private parties."
"The outbreaks have been caused by the recklessness of a sector of the population that has been told to isolate and has not done so," he said.
Of the 4,202 active cases, there are 3,977 patients in home isolation with mild symptoms.
18 patients have been hospitalised with more severe symptoms, bringing the total in hospital to 225.
Three patients have moved into intensive care, bringing that total up to 39.
The fatalities are the same as yesterday at 160 and the number of cured patients has risen to 3,497.
The regional health services continue to undertake PCR testing and completed 2,853 PCR tests on Wednesday and 98 antibody tests.
On Thursday the regional minister also announced that the outlying district of Archivel in the Caravaca de la Cruz municipality was returning to phase 1 restrictions and a “flexibilised confinement.