ARCHIVED - Murcia stands alone as the only Spanish region with no coronavirus cases – so far

The epidemic has spread to Orihuela just a few kilometres from the boundary of the Region

The inclusion of the first coronavirus case in Aragón in the latest update of positive diagnoses in Spain means that Murcia is now the only one of the country’s 17 regions to be free of the virus – so far.

Apart from the north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla all of the Autonomous Communities of Spain now have at least one patient in isolated hospital care in order to avoid spreading Covid-19 except for Murcia, a fact which is being attributed by tongue-in-cheek commentators on social media to the inherent goodness of the Region’s lemons, its locally produced beer or its exclusion from the AVE high-speed rail network. Some have even gone so far as to link the coincidence with the popularity of the far-right political party Vox, although the link here is an even more tenuous one!

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!

There may have been no cases reported in Murcia, but over the last few weeks 75 tests have been carried out on patients suspected of being potential carriers of the virus. All of them have proved negative, but the regional government has taken steps to limit any potential spread of the epidemic including recommending the cancellation of school trips, the setting up of a special helpline to supply information to members of the public (900 121212), urging 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, suspending the practical experience being gained by students of Medicine and Nursing at the University of Murcia in the Region’s public hospitals.

Also on Wednesday, the first case of the coronavirus in the Vega Baja area of the province of Alicante, which shares a boundary with Murcia, was confirmed, as a result of which the epidemic has reached within a few kilometres of the Region. No details have been released of the patient who is in hospital in Orihuela, but two more cases have been diagnosed in the province of Alicante, one a resident of Torremanzanas, 40 kilometres north of the city of Alicante.

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