ARCHIVED - Murcia Today weekly bulletin 8th April 2020

Easter weekend begins with Spain still under lockdown for at least another fortnight

This week’s bulletin is being brought to you earlier than usual due to the Easter weekend holidays, which begin on Wednesday evening: in fact, in the past no bulletin has been sent in Easter week due to the shortened working week, but in recognition of your support for the bulletin, we have decided to send one relating to the news so far this week.

Wednesday might mark the start of a long holiday weekend according to the calendar, but of course the Region of Murcia will not be welcoming the crowds of visitors from Madrid and elsewhere who normally ensure that coastal towns enjoy a mini peak season before the summer. In fact, as things stand at present great efforts are being made to ensure that second home owners are turned away if they attempt to make their annual pilgrimages to the Costa Cálida, and to leave permanent residents to continue their coronavirus lockdown undisturbed!

It is now almost four weeks since Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared the state of emergency in Spain and confined people to their homes except for specific purposes, and after 25 days it is natural that there is speculation over what activities might be allowed by the beginning of May if the situation makes it possible to relax the restrictions. But the only certainty at present, with the lockdown extended until at least 26th April, is that the return to normality after coronavirus will be drawn-out and gradual.

A date for the resumption of “normal everyday life” has not and cannot be set, and Sr Sánchez has stated earlier in the week that complete normality cannot be contemplated until a vaccine becomes available.

He has certainly indicated that he is considering further extensions of the state of emergency and is considering the options available.

There is so much confusing and conflicting information being published at the moment that it is difficult to know what is correct and what is wishful thinking. A good example of this is an interview with the Minister of Hacienda who said in an interview with Antena 3 today, which was partially re-published by the EP agency, and then selectively requoted by multiple news sources, that citizens would be able to recover their "normal life" from the 26th April, although "occupation of streets and plazas would only occur with clear instructions" from the central executive.

But later in the same interview she went on to explain that during the next two weeks technicians from the Ministry would be undertaking a major testing programme (see more info below) to ascertain the  actual spread of the virus nationwide and would base their recommendations on how a gradual return to normality could be achieved and in what stages, based on those results, emphasising that these decisions could only be made once the distribution study had been completed ( the truth is, that there is no doubt whatsoever, that the number of cases actually being counted is considerably lower than the real number of cases, and the government has no intention of allowing the public to mingle in the streets when there is a real risk of the virus spreading). The only thing that is currently certain "dar por hecho" is that the CURRENT state of emergency will last until the 26th April, she said. So what have the more sensationalist newspapers done??? They've published a totally misleading and inaccurate headline that "Spanish minister says normal life will resume from the 26th April", a headline pounced on by many social media commentators who only read the headlines of the articles and never click through to read the text, in spite of the fact that the headline is totally misleading.

In the meantime, as has become customary in recent weeks the news in Murcia (and the rest of Spain) has been almost entirely dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the format of this bulletin will again be a day-by-day summary of the news as it broke during the first half of Holy Week.

Monday 6th April

4,273 new cases, total 135,032

637 fatalities, total 13,055

40,437 recoveries in total

Region of Murcia: 1,259 cases, 68 fatalities, 156 recoveries

Monday was a strange day as the figures published nationally appeared to show a significant decrease in the number of deaths and a drop in the numbers of new cases, and both nationally and internationally these figures were interpreted as demonstrating a positive evolution; even the BBC news reported that Spain was reaching a plateau and the number of new cases was dropping with an apparent slowdown in infection and death rates.

Unfortunately the optimism would prove short-lived as by Tuesday it had become apparent that although there had indeed been a very small drop, the lack of administrative processing had simply caused a backlog in the reporting system. 

The figures in Murcia showed that another nine deaths had been recorded, bringing the total at this point to 68.

Once again a large proportion of the fatalities are reported to have concerned former residents of the Caser home for the elderly in Santo Ángel, a few kilometres outside the city of Murcia, and Manuel Villegas, the minister for Health in the Murcia government, stated during his daily briefing that various residents of homes for the elderly were in “very delicate condition”. By Wednesday he had to admit, however, that 42 of the 151 affected in carehomes who had become ill with Covid-19, had died, and 76 carehome workers were infected.

On Monday the total number of patients in intensive care in the Murcia Region fell from 58 to 53 while the number receiving treatment in hospital rose only slightly from 290 to 298.

Positive news for the region was that at last 42,800 rapid coronavirus test kits had arrived and were ready for use in Murcia, and it was announced that in using them priority would be given to medical and healthcare staff and other key sectors such as the forces of law and order, as well as those living or working in homes for the elderly and others in hospital. It was later added that the 18,000 people being treated as “possible” cases are also to be tested as priorities.

But as Easter Week began there was great concern over the number of people taking advantage of the holidays to travel to holiday homes and second residences in the Costa Cálida, as residents in coastal towns and villages continue to witness new arrivals from elsewhere in the Region and further afield. The concerns were shared by local Town Halls and by the regional government, where president Fernando López Miras made a direct request for more help from the Guardia Civil and the national police in intercepting those breaking the lockdown restrictions.

In Cartagena, meanwhile, Mayoress Ana Belén Castejon made a similar demand for more help in monitoring coastal access roads to the central government delegation in the Region of Murcia, and all along the coastline road blocks and spot checks were stepped up from Águilas to San Pedro del Pinatar.

In Lorca, meanwhile, the local police brought drones into service to clamp down more efficiently on lockdown breakers, while in the city of Murcia the Policía Local were quick to halt a Palm Sunday Mass which was being attended by approximately 30 people at premises associated with an evangelical group. After the police had taken their names and ID numbers they left the building carrying their olive branches and palm fronds (the gesture shown by the Jews to Christ as he made his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem), but each will now face a fine of between 600 and 3,000 euros.

At national level, the Spanish government set in motion a “Noah’s Ark” strategy in the fight against the coronavirus along similar lines of a tactic reported to have met with success in China. Pedro Sánchez, the President of the Spanish government, requested that each of the country’s 17 regions provide a list of public or privately owned infrastructures (such as hotels, sports pavilions, hostels and conference centres) which can be made available in order to isolate patients found to have contracted the Covid-19 virus but presenting only mild symptoms or none at all.

The governments have been quick to respond and Murcia is among the regions to have replied already, listing a total of 977 hotel rooms in establishments which have already been given approval by health service inspectors. But of course the main flaw in the strategy is that without large numbers of rapid testing kits being available in Spain it is still not possible to identify all of those who have contracted the virus, a matter which began to be addressed during the rest of the week…

What appeared at first to be a bizarre story from New York has attracted plenty of attention since. The story concerns a tigress named Nadia in the Bronx Zoo who is reported to have caught Covid-19 from one of her keepers, raising concerns over the possibility that cats may be able to catch the virus and transmit it to humans.

This possibility was seized upon by the press, where many highlighted the fact that the route by which Covid-19 reached the human race in China is thought to have begun in a bat and included a pangolin.

Two dogs which have been found to be suffering from the virus in Hong Kong were among 25 animals studied due to their belonging to people who had tested positive, and plenty of people are leaping to the conclusion that Covid-19 can be transmitted from humans to animals and, possibly, vice versa. In China preliminary studies have already concluded that although the virus fares poorly in dogs, pigs, chickens and ducks it is capable of thriving in cats and ferrets.

This is only a hypothesis at present, but in theory if a cat is in the habit of spending time outside the home it could contract the virus from another human being and bring it into the house, making it advisable according to some vets, for owners to keep a safe distance from cats and leading to concerns amongst those working in animal rescue charities, that pets may be dumped by panicking owners. 

The issue of migrants making their way into Spain from Africa has been very much forgotten during the current emergency but it returned to the headlines with respect to the north African enclave of Melilla, where the frontiers with Morocco have been guarded by 6-metre barbed wire fences for years in an attempt to repel such illegal immigrants. Since 13th March the border has been completely closed but even the added deterrent of Covid-19 in Spain was not sufficient to dissuade 50 Africans from storming the border in Melilla on Monday and successfully entering Spanish territory.

In normal circumstances they would be temporarily housed in a detention centre while procedures for their repatriation are initiated, but given the exceptional nature of the current situation the PP and Vox parties demanded that on this occasion they be returned to Morocco immediately due to the risk of the coronavirus being spread further in the enclave.

Tuesday 7th April

5,478 new cases, total 140,510

743 fatalities, total 13,798

43,208 recoveries in total

Region of Murcia: 1,283 cases, 78 fatalities, 193 recoveries

Murcia began the day with 10 more fatalities but the number of confirmed active cases fell to 1,012 and the number of patients in intensive care units also dropped again slightly to 51. Although regional officials expressed cautious optimism that the virus is starting to flatten out, they also highlighted that many more cases will come to light over the next few days as the 42,000 rapid testing kits are put to use.

Additional data released gave the breakdown of Murcia Covid-19 cases by municipality, showing that over half of all diagnoses have been in and around the regional capital (including municipalities such as Molina de Segura, Santomera and Las Torres de Cotillas often thought of as "dormitory towns" for those working in the capital city). The highest rates of infection per 1,000 inhabitants are reported in Santomera and Abanilla, while the lowest is in Lorca.

But in coastal areas one of the most pressing concerns continued to be the hundreds of people facing fines after being detained as they flocked towards the coast, some of them risking arrest for repeatedly attempting to reach their holiday homes. It appears that the habits of Spaniards are so deeply ingrained that many of them are failing to resist the temptation to undertake their annual Semana Santa trip to holiday homes in the Costa Cálida, and in the Region of Murcia alone between Friday and Sunday the national law enforcement bodies made 5 arrests and reported over 900 people for breaking the lockdown restrictions.

Most of the offenders intercepted are reported to have been in La Manga, around the Mar Menor and in Mazarrón and Águilas in the south-west of the Region, and although the Mayor of San Javier claimed on Saturday that reports of numerous tourists arriving were “hoaxes”, many residents of La Manga (part of which lies in the municipality of San Javier) are adamant that this is not the case.

In Cartagena, meanwhile, extra checkpoints in La Manga and around Cabo de Palos, La Manga, Los Urrutias, Los Nietos, Playa Honda and Mar de Cristal, were set up and further spot checks are being carried out at supermarkets in Cabo de Palos; these will continue throughout the Easter holiday period.

All of those attempting to travel to the coast are aware that they are breaking the law during the state of emergency, and apart from travelling by night in order to avoid detection they are also making use of minor roads and back streets in an attempt to dodge the police checks. All in all it is hard to understand their actions, given that once they arrive on the coast there is little opportunity for them to enjoy their stay as they would in a “normal” Semana Santa!

Should they venture onto the beach or go out for a walk they will be fined!

By Wednesday afternoon the Guardia Civíl had imposed 13,760 fines and detained 71 people for breaching the lockdown regulations across Spain.

In Spain as a whole efforts were made again to identify positive trends in the latest data, with the 743 new deaths being partially attributed to a backlog from the weekend. Despite the situation in intensive care units across the country generally stabilizing, the Tuesday figures came as a timely reminder that any complacency regarding the lockdown is not yet to be tolerated.

Elsewhere, the Catalan courts obliged the regional Catalan government to test police officers for Covid-19 “urgently and immediately” following demands from the Mossos d'Esquadra (the regional police force) for more protection as the virus death toll in the region neared 3,000, while in the province of Granada a lockdown breaker cracked under the pressure and led police straight to a marijuana plantation in his home. Officers had accompanied the man home after he was unable to produce ID documentation on the streets and found around 100 cannabis plants in his house in Valderrubio!

Meanwhile, the potential crisis facing the agricultural sector in the near future met with a response from the national government with the announcement that fruit and vegetable growers will be allowed to take on both immigrants whose temporary work permits have expired and the long-term unemployed, who will continue to receive benefits while picking and harvesting crops which are now ripe.

This is a reaction to the lack of migratory farmhands available due to the borders of Spain and other countries (particularly those in eastern Europe and northern Africa) being closed, a situation which has led to between 100,000 and 150,000 temporary farmhands “missing” from Spain this year.

Wednesday 8th April

6,180 new cases, total 146,690

757 fatalities, total 14,555

48,021 recoveries in total

Region of Murcia: 1,326 cases, 85 fatalities, 193 recoveries

Don´t forget that Thursday and Friday are both red days in the Murcia Region, so many supermarkets and foodstores will be closed. Click for Easter holiday opening hours of the principal chains in the region.

Another day and more inconclusive data as Spain prepares for what will be for the most part an almost surreally quiet long holiday weekend. In Murcia 4 of the 7 fatalities added to the total related to former residents of homes for the elderly and the number of confirmed active cases rose by 36 during the day to 1,048 (discounting patients given the all-clear and those who have made a full recovery), although the number of patients being treated for Covid-19 in Murcia hospitals fell from 293 to 273.

In the whole of Spain, the rise of 757 in the death toll came as an abrupt reminder that the emergency is still not on the wane, although again minor signs of improvement can be detected: for example, the number of people in intensive care in Madrid, the worst-hit region, appears to have started to fall.

But at the same time it needs to be stressed that the concerns over the official statistics being hugely underestimated extend not only to the number of coronavirus cases confirmed but also to the number of deaths, which could be at least 3,000 higher than in the official data.

This is the because the daily figures published by the Ministry of Health possibly take into account only deaths where Covid-19 infection has been confirmed by testing, and not those where the virus is identified merely as a possible cause. This is almost certainly the case in Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha, and possibly in other regions of Spain.

On top of this, the huge distortion in the number of cases confirmed was made apparent by a government scheme to select a representative sample of 62,400 people across Spain and to test them to determine the true extent of infection across the country (this is the testing referred to by the Minister for Hacienda in the introductory paragraphs). The underlying assumption is that only 1 in 16 cases has been officially diagnosed, and if this is found to be the case it would mean that approximately 2.35 million people in Spain have in fact contracted the virus.

Among the sample will be around 1,600 people in Murcia, and when the results are known it will mean that the government is at least able to make decisions regarding a scaling down of the lockdown restrictions based on more reliable statistics than those currently available. In the meantime, though, the process provides a reminder that while the most recent daily figures may indicate a gradual slowing down in the increasing death and infection totals, those totals need to be taken with a very large pinch of salt indeed.

In economic terms, another telling statistic to come to light is that the number of workers in Murcia affected by ERTE temporary employment regulation schemes (temporary redundancies) during the coronavirus emergency is now almost exactly the same as the number of people officially registered as being out of work, at just over 107,000. In other words, if the employees subject to 17,535 ERTEs were to be made redundant the unemployment figure in Murcia would double at a stroke!

This comes in the context of an expected fall in the number of people in paid employment around the world of 6.7 per cent, according to the International Labour Organization, which now compares the pandemic not to the recession of 2008 or the oil crisis of the 1970, but to the Second World War.

But for many in Spain, stressed by the restrictions of a lockdown which has now lasted almost 4 weeks, one of the most immediate concerns has been when they will be allowed to start resuming “normal life”. As those working in “non-essential” services prepare to go back to work after the weekend there is a temptation to view this as the first step along that long path, but the reality is that before the restrictions on the general population can start to be lifted a lot of progress still has to be made.

With the latest daily death total still at over 700 there is practically no chance of “normal” life resuming before May at the very earliest, despite statements made on Tuesday to the effect that the state of alarm could start to be “de-escalated” as of next week. Certainly many people are about to go back to work, but it could be argued that this has been forced upon the government by the need to ensure that economic activity does not grind to a halt, and that it would be preferable in some ways to prolong the shutdown.

Nonetheless, a working committee is to be set up to analyse which restrictive measures should be lifted first and when, but it is hard to see any relaxation of the ban on leaving home unnecessarily just yet. Apart from any other considerations, it appears to be the intention to make the resumption of activities such as jogging conditional on the obligatory wearing of facemasks, but until a reliable supply of affordable and effective masks can be guaranteed at all pharmacies throughout the country that is not an option.

It is worth considering also that for schools to re-open successfully it would be necessary for parents to be willing to allow their children to attend: in Murcia at present that is, for the moment and in the case of most parents, completely unthinkable.

In short, then, hopes of a quick relaxation of the lockdown would appear to be ungrounded. It may be tempting to pray for an Easter miracle, but it is far more realistic to adopt the attitude that we may be lucky if it turns out that the end of the fourth week marks the halfway point in our confinement to our homes.

However, both the number of cases and the number of deaths in Murcia remain the lowest in any of the mainland regions (Autonomous Communities) of Spain and although the health service here has struggled to cope, the figures are starting to show stabilisation in the region to such an extent that on Wednesday afternoon the Murcian Health Service announced that it hopes to resume non-Covid related activity in the hospitals of the region next week. The health service will initially focus on chronic illnesses, the detection of tumours and those with pre-existing medical conditions, the aim being to resume surgery and consultations on a gradual basis as the de-celeration of the virus permits.

Each of the nine areas of the Murcia Health Service would be following their own specific plan with the aim of reducing the back-log of cases caused by the Covid virus.

A final story

Finally, there is just one last story which resurfaced this week and that is the ongoing problems of the Mar Menor.

The minister for Agriculture and the Environment in the Murcia government has warned that the water quality figures figures have worsened since the most recent of the 4 heavy storms to have affected the Region since last September.

As a result, the amount of algal bloom visible on the surface is likely to rise significantly as the water temperature increases in the next few weeks. In addition, he warns, the conditions appear to indicate that another episode of anoxia(oxygen starvation) could be imminent, similar to the one which caused tons of dead fish to wash up on the beaches of the lagoon in October.

Not good news for the region, but as the summer tourist season is already looking "complicated" to say the least due to the lack of flights in May and June and disruption caused by the Covid situation, this news will be of little surprise to those who have been monitoring the situation during the successive episodes of flooding in the last few months. Jet2 announced on Tuesday that they were planning to resume their flights and operations programme on June 17th and were cancelling any flights or holidays booked before that date, and we already know Ryanair will not be flying Spanish routes during April and May, so we just have to allow the virus to run its course and hope that we're unlocked and back out in full by the summer!