Date Published: 19/07/2020
ARCHIVED - Drinking club closed in Totana due to Covid outbreak
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
This is linked to the so-called “Bolivian outbreak”
After closing four drinking clubs on Friday in the Atalayas leisure zone in Murcia city, the regional Ministry of Health has again used the new powers granted by the decree passed on Thursday to close another such venue, this time in the Totana municipality.
This type of location is called a “local de ocio nocturno” a type of venue widely used by young people in which to gather and socialise which is a cross between a bar and a night club, normally a noisy, busy venue, packed with the younger generation enjoying themselves.
Although this is technically an outbreak, being more than three cases, the figures are being included in amongst those in the so-called “Bolivian outbreak”
This started with three people who live in the Murcia Region but are Bolivian nationals and had returned to Spain via Barajas airport in Madrid from Bolivia during the period in which flights were still being run to permit Spanish residents to return to the country.
They arrived back in Spain on June 3rd.
Between the 4th and 11th June they are known to have visited the four locations closed down by the regional government on Friday and are also known to have broken quarantine and gone out knowing they were contagious.
Their actions have now lead to outbreaks in different areas of the region, and one death. To date, there are now 105 positives dirctly linked to these three people in Murcia, Cartagena, Moratalla and now Totana.The deceased is a 98 year old woman in a small outlying village in the north-west of the region, in Moratalla, who was contaminated by a family member though this outbreak. A frozen fruit processing plant has been forced to close with 18 staff testing positive on the outskirts of Murcia City.
Cases linked to the Atalyaa leisure zone are now being counted as an outbreak in their own right and have gone up to 34 cases on Sunday.
The regional government is appealing for anyone who has been out drinking in the Atalaya leisure zone or the newly closed venue in Totana to contact the 112 services or call 900121212 and arrange for a covid test at their local health contre. They have specifically requested that a prior appointment be made; do NOT just turn up at a health centre; call the numbers given first.
The regional government has produced an excellent video trying to persuade young people to act responsibly during this phase of the pandemic.
Young people tend to experience only mild symptoms (in general, there are of course exceptions) but are spreading the virus rapidly due to their sociable activities and behaviour, briging down the average age of positives cases drastically since the state of emergency ended. The fear of course, is that they tend to view the virus as not being dangerous to them, but forget that they can then infect elderly members of their own family……See below.