ARCHIVED - Murcia and Spanish news round-up week ending 6th March 2020

Coronavirus cases rise sharply although Murcia remains unaffected by the epidemic – so far…

There is just one topic dominating the news in Spain at present, and it is one which is repeated in practically all parts of the world as the coronavirus epidemic continues to spread.

Just a week ago the number of SARS-CoV-2 cases confirmed in this country stood at 33, but by this Friday morning the number had risen to 385 from 290 on Thursday evening and the first five fatalities related to the virus had been confirmed. All five of those deaths involved elderly patients, two of them at a centre for the elderly in Madrid, and although the sudden rise in the total on Friday morning is attributable largely to two specific groups of people testing positive in Madrid and La Rioja it is a sobering thought that only ten days ago the number of cases recorded in Italy stood at 288.

Now the Italian authorities have confirmed almost 3,300 cases and the death toll has risen to 148, and the closure of all schools and universities in the country has led to the Spanish “Erasmus” university students spending a year in Italy being offered free travel home. Among Spanish Erasmus students Italy has until now been the favourite destination, welcoming over 8,000 Spaniards into its universities every year as well as around 2,000 teaching staff.

The first coronavirus-related death in Spain was that of a 69-year-old man who passed away three weeks ago after being admitted to the Hospital Arnau de Vilanova in Valencia with pneumonia, but it was only this week that autopsy results confirmed that he had contracted the coronavirus. The victim had recently returned from a trip to Nepal, and shortly after the cause of his death emerged it was announced that certain sporting events which are scheduled in Spain over the next few weeks will go ahead behind closed doors, including Champions’ League fixtures involving visiting teams from Italy.

Murcia stands alone!

From the point of view of the Region of Murcia, on the other hand, the coronavirus remains a threat waiting to happen. Since Wednesday Murcia has been the only one of Spain’s 17 regions with no cases, although a few positive diagnoses have been confirmed very close by in the south of the province of Alicante, and while Manuel Villegas, the regional health minister, stated a week ago that the Region was less at risk than other parts of Spain it is hard to see how the count can remain at zero for much longer.

In anticipation of the inevitable, measures continue to be introduced in Murcia to reduce the risk of contagion, and it was announced on Thursday that the regional health service is requesting that only one family member be allowed to visit patients in hospital, the aim being to reduce the risk of coronavirus in patients, visitors and medical staff. In addition, members of the public who are coughing or sneezing are asked to refrain from visiting friends and relatives in hospital, while it is recommended that pharmaceutical company representatives should not be welcomed at medical centres for the time being due to their visiting numerous other locations where the coronavirus risk is relatively high.

In addition, the regional government has recommended the cancellation of school trips, set up a special helpline to supply information to members of the public (900 121212), urged people to call the 112 emergency services line if they suspect that they may have contracted the virus rather than going straight to hospital or to a medical centre and, as of Wednesday, suspended the practical experience being gained by students of Medicine and Nursing at the University of Murcia in the Region’s public hospitals.

Despite the calls for calm, though, panic buying has forced the Murcia health service to buy 200,000 extra facemasks and to stop supplying them to all visitors in certain hospitals!

Furthermore, the Diocese of Cartagena has joined the list of ecclesiastical authorities advising that ceremonies which involve the faithful kissing the feet and hands of holy statues should be replaced by a simple bow or curtsey: many of these ceremonies are being held all over Spain at present as Easter nears.

Exactly how Murcia has come to stand alone in resisting the spread of the virus is a matter of considerable speculation, with tongue-in-cheek commentators on social media pointing to the inherent goodness of the Region’s lemons, its locally produced beer or its exclusion from the AVE high-speed rail network.

To the surprise of many, this last theory appears to be subscribed to by the regional government, if statements made by spokesperson Ana Martínez Vidal are anything to go by. She expressed the view that there is a “"probable" link between Murcia being the only region still unaffected and the lack of important rail infrastructures connecting it with the rest of the country, explaining that a theoretical connection between the lack of AVE high-speed trains and the non-appearance of Covid-19 “cannot be ruled out”. An unexpected vote of confidence in the light-hearted theory that the Region is so isolated that the coronavirus cannot find a way to get here!

On the other hand, a possibility which is treated with a little more credibility is that the warm climate of Murcia may be playing a part: by no means everything is known about Covid-19 but apparently it appears that it does not thrive in higher temperatures, and even for the Costa Cálida last month was exceptionally warm as the average temperature was the highest in the month of February since comparable records were first compiled in 1941!

At the same time, Sra Martínez Vidal also confirmed that 8 important business events and fairs in the Region have been cancelled or postponed as a result of the epidemic, a situation mirrored across the country as the economic effects of the epidemic begin to be felt.

Meanwhile, amid all of the fears regarding the coronavirus the Costa Cálida has continued to enjoy some glorious early spring weather. Temperatures have reached the mid-20s almost throughout the week (San Javier was the warmest place in Spain on Monday!), the only reminders that it is officially still winter coming in the form of strong winds at times, and the outlook for the weekend remains settled.

Tourism news: visitors from the UK to Spain spent almost 1 million euros per hour in January

All forecasts regarding international tourism in 2020 are currently on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak, but latest figures released in relation to January 2020 in Spain show even before the virus began to become a serious threat the number of visitors arriving from abroad this year had started to fall.

During the month Spain welcomed 4.14 million foreign visitors, 1.4 per cent fewer than in the first month of 2019 and the seventh year-on-year decrease in the last nine months, and although it would be easy to attribute the drop entirely to Brexit there were also significant decreases in the number of people coming from Germany and Scandinavia. Brexit or no Brexit, the importance of the British to the sector is underlined by the fact that they constituted the largest source of foreign visitors to Andalucía, the Canaries and the Comunidad Valenciana.

On the positive side, meanwhile, the overall decrease in visitor numbers was accompanied by a rise of 2.1 per cent in the amount of money they are calculated to have spent in Spain in January, although again the figure relating to the UK showed a year-on-year drop, this time of 9.4 per cent, reaching 730 million euros. Nonetheless, that equates to just under a million euros an hour!

In the Region of Murcia, meanwhile, there was actually a 3.5 increase in foreign visitor numbers and the number of people coming from the UK rose by 4.3 per cent. With a share of 35 per cent of the total, the Brits were even more important to international tourism in the Costa Cálida in January than they were in the destinations mentioned above!

Other items in the news this week

The first Murcia-born loggerhead turtles in over a century are growing up in San Pedro del Pinatar! 11 of the 21 baby turtles born in Calnegre last year are being reared at the marine aquiculture centre in San Pedro.

Proposed tolls on Spanish motorways would mean a charge of 4 euros between Murcia and Cartagena: construction companies propose a toll of 9 cents per kilometre on all State-owned motorways.

25 million euros to repair the minesweeper which ran aground off La Manga in August: the Turia incident occurred during the salvage operation after the death of a Patrulla Águila pilot in a plane crash, in many ways a similar accident to the one which occurred last week.

The port of Cartagena makes land available to complete a cycle lane to the Navidad lighthouse: the cycling route will be extended to run from Cala Cortina to the Fuerte de Navidad.

La Fuensanta, the patron of Murcia arrives in the city for Easter: large crowds gathered to greet the statue of the Virgen de la Fuensanta despite coronavirus worries.

Water quality in the Mar Menor remains absolutely safe for bathing: little change in the parameters measured at the end of February.

Women face charges in Molina de Segura after faking a 5,000-euro theft: security camera footage showed that an alleged handbag snatch had been falsified.

Murcia government to spend 1.2 million euros on fighting the pine processionary caterpillar: the caterpillar is a threat to household pets and wild animals as well as to the pine trees in which they nest.

Murcia master sculptor Francisco Salzillo gave all his statues the same feet! Modern podological research reveals the standard model for an 18^th century Salzillo foot…

Unemployment in Spain down by just 1.3 per cent in February: good news in the Costa Cálida as the jobless total has fallen more sharply in Murcia than anywhere else in Spain in the last year!

Uncertainty over the future of the Patrulla Águila aerobatics display team: two leading pilots have died in crashes off La Manga del Mar Menor in the last 6 months leaving the stunt team without a solo flyer.

The latest accident continues to cause concern as the safety record at the Academia General del Aire (AGA) in San Javier has fallen off in recent months, and one of the theories being put forward is that due to the age of the C101 replacement parts are hard to come by and are therefore sometimes “cannibalized” from other planes.

2 million euros for improvements to Fuente Álamo water treatment plant: money is also to be spent on repairing roads damaged in gota fría storms.

Car overturns on the Gran Via of la Manga del Mar Menor: the car hit a lamp post before overturning, trapping the occupants, and one woman required hospital treatment.

Jumilla salt company aims to increase production from 100,000 tons per year: Jumsal are set to build ten new salt pans in the south of the Jumilla countryside, reminding us that not all salt production in Murcia is in coastal areas!

Spanish tourism authorities move Burgos cathedral to Murcia at Netherlands fair! The coastal skyline of Benidorm was featured on a poster suggesting it was in Navarra as misleading images presented a geographically confused impression of Spain…

3 tons of hashish found on sinking narcoboat off Cabo de Palos: two traffickers were rescued before escaping from custody in Cartagena after their adventure on the “high seas”…

Injured cyclist rescued from remote cove in Cabo de Palos: a complicated rescue operation ended with the man being taken to safety by boat.

Murcia and Spanish property news

While attention in Spain understandably focuses on issues related to public health the latest property market analyses continue to show a generalized picture of stagnation, and this was reiterated during the week by the latest monthly report from leading property valuation firm Tinsa.

According to the firm, in February 2020 the recovery in market prices of recent years continued to progress at a minimal rate with a year-on–year increase of just 2.4 per cent, the 14th consecutive rise of under 5 per cent, and in Mediterranean coastal areas an upward movement of just 1.4 per cent since February 2019 is observed. In consequence, the nationwide index is just 16.6 per cent higher than when the market bottomed out in February 2015 and 33.1 per cent lower than at the height of the boom in late 2007, while in the Mediterranean the figure is 15.2 per cent higher than at its lowest point 5 years ago.

At the same time, the latest “market snapshot” provides little to cause expectations of any dramatic change in the immediate future: sales and mortgage figures appear to have stabilized while unemployment is falling only gradually, and although the number of building licences granted is slowly increasing and interest rates remain extremely low, possibly providing some stimulus to the market as a whole, any changes in market performance are likely to be tentative ones.

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