Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin 19th December

Local councils have been putting out Christmas programmes this week, but as so many events are being cancelled at the last minute, the few seats that are available requiring pre-reservation (and already allocated to locals before the programmes have even been published) and most of the activities including the cabalgatas only taking place virtually this year, it's just not worth spending time trying to even attempt to translate them; and logically, the last thing anybody should be doing is going to a potentially crowded location this year....... there are still plenty of municpal nativity scenes in their normal locations (except Murcia City, no belén in the Plaza Belluga this year) and it's always enjoyable just to wander around and see the lights in any city, the most important thing this festive season is staying safe!

The image above shows the huge star put on the top of the church of San Pedro in Lorca and the lights from the castle lighting up the city this festive season.

Vaccinations

Coronavirus vaccinations will begin in Spain from 27th December

This week the Ministry of Health has been under pressure to confirm the intentions of the Spanish Government regarding a roll-out of the coronavirus vaccination campaign across Spain, particularly following the initiation of the campaign in the UK and US.

On Monday the ministry could only confirm that the vaccination campaign could begin before Three Kings Day on the 6th, January 4th or 5th due to the fact that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) could not authorize the first Pfizer vaccine for use in Europe, until after its meeting on December 29th.

However, on Thursday the EU announced that the meeting had been brought forward to Monday 21st and should the vaccine be approved on that day, then the European Commission be able to confirm its approval the following day or day after, so deliveries of the vaccine could begin in the EU immediately afterwards, which meant that vaccinations could begin from 27th December onwards.

At the moment Spain does not know exactly how many vaccines will arrive in the first shipment and on which date this will be, but work has already begun to prepare the logistical plan for the distribution, storage and handling of the vaccine and prepare the necessary areas for distribution.

Spain has agreed to purchase 140 million doses of various vaccines in 2021, with which to immunize 80 million people, almost double the 47 million population of the country.

Between 15 and 20 million people will have received the vaccine before summer and the entire population will have received it by the end of August, according to the initial plans of the Health Ministry, the vaccines supplied from a range of companies. At the moment purchasing deals have been agreed with seven pharmaceutical companies: Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Sanofi-GSK, Novavax and CureVac.

Vaccinations programme to roll-out simultaneously across Spain
The Ministry of Health is planning to initiate its campaign on the 27th December in all regions, and by Friday it had been confirmed that the Murcia Region will receive 90,000 doses in the initial roll-out, has the units in place which can store the vaccines at the required temperature and plans to begin its vaccinations programme on the 27th December, starting with the residencia care homes, their personnel and medical personnel working in close contact with covid patients.

Health Minister Salvador Illa said that: “ There will be vaccines for everyone and there will be plenty."

Pensioners will be the second level in line for vaccines and the initial indications given so far are that the Ministry intends to use the existing network of health centres to carry out the vaccinations and residents will be advised of an appointment for their vaccine in the same way as the system currently operates for the annual flu vaccinations campaign. Private hospitals are also being enlisted to help administer the vaccines and the army will help logistically wherever possible.

EU launches App to show real-time coronavirus evolution in European Union.The app aims to help travellers plan and find information about the situation in each country of the EU

The European Commission has launched a new app called "Re-Open EU", which is a continuation of the webpage set in motion earlier this year (Click for reopen.europa.eu/en) and which enables those planning to travel to check-out the real-time situation in the European Union as well as Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

The App. can be downloaded free of charge via IOS and Android.

Spanish Prime Minister forced to isolate after lunching with French premier Macrón who has tested positive. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has tested negative but will still isolate until Christmas Eve.

Former Spanish King Juan Carlos will not return to Spain this Christmas; conflicting reports say either that the former King has been hospitalised with coronavirus or that he has agreed with King Felipe not to come back to Spain due to the recent revelations about his financial dealings.

Seroprevalence study indicates 6.1 per cent of the population of Murcia has contracted coronavirus.In Spain as a whole the proportion is up to almost 1 in 10.

Throughout the covid pandemic Spain’s national coronavirus monitoring program, conducted by the Ministry of Health, the Carlos III Institute and the government’s central statistics unit, has been carrying out studies to try and assess how much of the population has been affected by coronavirus.

As it is known that many of the cases are asymptomatic and therefore not only do the carriers not know that they are contagious, they are also unaware that they have have been infected, so the study aims to analyse what percentage of the population has actually contracted the virus.

Three studies were undertaken during the spring and a fourth study has just been completed, the results of which indicated that while 9.9 per cent of the country’s population is believed to have already contracted Covid-19 the equivalent proportion in the Region of Murcia is far lower at 6.1 per cent.

Murcia has consistently delivered lower results than other areas of the country; on the one hand this is positive as less people have been affected than in other more densely populated regions, but on the other hand it also means that a larger percentage of the population is therefore still vulnerable to contagion.

On a nationwide level, the finding that one in ten Spaniards has already been infected implies a total of around 4.7 million cases, half of them during the second wave of contagion which has marked the autumn.

The results also show a wide disparity among the conclusions reached in the 50 provinces of the country: at one end of the scale, seroprevalence rates of 18.6 per cent are reported in Madrid and Soria, while rates of under 4 per cent were found in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and A Coruña.

Spanish parliament passes landmark voluntary euthanasia law: Terminally ill patients may be allowed to request euthanasia by April 2021

Landmark legislation allowing voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill patients enduring extreme physical or mental suffering was passed in the Spanish parliament on Thursday, and those backing the bill are optimistic that the new law could come into force within three months.

The proposed law was passed by 198 votes to 138 with 2 abstentions and sets out the conditions under which patients will be permitted to receive assistance in ending their lives. With the necessary seal of approval from the Senate, the upper house of parliament, almost certain to be forthcoming, it is expected that euthanasia in Spain will become a legal reality by April, representing what Salvador Illa, the Minister for Health, describes as a victory for “common sense and humanity”.

On the other hand, during the parliamentary debate on Thursday José Ignacio Echániz of the PP party described the Bill as “unconstitutional, inopportune, frivolous and unfair”, concluding that the new law is “a defeat for everyone”, while the Vox party view it as a licence to sign death sentences; both have expressed strong opposition to the new measure.

Among the conditions in which euthanasia is to be allowed it is specified that the patient must request the procedure at least twice on separate occasions at least 15 days apart, voluntarily and having been made fully aware of their medical diagnosis and prognosis. The patient must also be fully informed not only of the procedure involved in euthanasia, but of alternative end-of-life care options including palliative treatment.

The medical condition suffered must be serious, incurable and the cause of constant and “intolerable” mental or physical suffering, or chronic and disabling pain which affects the patient’s physical and mental independence. In addition, it must be established that there is no possibility of the condition of the patient being improved or cured.

In cases involving completely incapacitated patients, including those who are unconscious or in coma, a written document such as a will, signed when the patient was in a fit state to do so while aware of its contents, must be produced, showing explicitly the patient’s desire to be given euthanasia.

The entire procedure must be supervised and certified by a senior doctor who in turn must receive the opinion of another consultant doctor, and the relevant reports and decisions will need to be ratified by the Evaluation and Monitoring Committees which are to be established in each of Spain’s 17 regions, a process which is expected to take around two weeks.

Once the procedure of euthanasia has been fully authorized it can be administered either in hospital or at the patient’s home, always in the presence of the medical staff supervising it. Medical staff are to be allowed to opt out of participating as conscientious objectors.

Brexit

Brexit has rumbled on this week, and as of Saturday lunchtime no announcement has yet been made reference a trade agreement. Although fishing rights continue to be reportedly at the heart of the latest negotiations, fishing quotas were agreed as far as possible this week (as they are done at this same time every year) between the remaining EU nations, with quota cuts being accepted by Spain as part of an EU-wide agreement to try and maintain Mediterranean fish stocks and ensure that stocks are conserved for the benefit of all members in the coming years.Click for info

However, the quota committee was unable to complete the quota allocations for some species until the outcome of trade negotiations is known as British vessels are involved in the fishing of 119 species.

Elsewhere, the topic of delays at border crossings has been very much in the UK news and Murcian hauliers have complained that the queues at border crossings are costing thousands of euros in wasted driver time and some of the 3,000 trucks that make regular journeys to the UK every week are being stuck in queues for up to 10 hours each way. This means that they are then unable to make second runs and are letting down other clients with pre-booked runs as journeys are taking longer than normal.

If anyone is still considering a move to Spain next year, there is some help available and the UK Gov. has provided sets of contact details from which help and information can be obtained: Basic Information for British nationals considering moving to Spain in 2021.

Image; Evolution of cases in the Murcia Region

The evolution of the number of cases can clearly be seen in the graph above, which shows how the number of cases reported has fallen drastically in the last month.

Covid overview: the situation has remained fairly stable in Murcia this week, with an average of 6.7% positivity in the PCR tests taken and the average incidence rate over the week growing from 151 to 155, reflecting a slight increase in the number of new cases.

Last Friday the figure was 153, so the growth this week is negligible when taking into consideration that at the beginning of November, the region was reporting an accumulated incidence rate of 900 over a 14 day period.

Image: this shows how the number of hospitalisations has fallen in the region

The number of hospitalisations has fallen slightly this week, from 250 last Friday to 231 this Friday and there are now 63 in intensive care as opposed to 65 last Friday.

This week there have been 44 deaths, considerably more than the 26 reported last week, but lower than in the three preceding weeks, bringing the total to 694 on Friday. Unfortunately, on Saturday morning the next set of figures pushed the deaths up to 700. It's another uncomfortable landmark figure, taking into consideration that there were only 150 fatalities when Spain exited the state of enmergency after the first wave in June, demonstrating how badly Murcia has been hit in this second wave compared to the first.

So this week there has been very little change in the situation here in Murcia.

Number of new cases in the last 7 and 14 days by municipality:
Note, the first figure shown is the actual number of cases diagnosed in the last 7 days, the second is the total in the last 14 days, and the third is the AI rate for the last 7 days:
Abanilla 19/23/310( This means 19 cases in the last 7 days, 23 cases in 14 days and an AI rate of 310 per 100,000 over the last 7 days)
Abarán 0
Águilas 15/30/42
Albudeite 1/1/72
Alcantarilla 19/37/45
Aledo 0
Los Alcázares 43/89/266 (rate over 14 days 551 which may not be enough for restrictions to be removed, hope it comes down over the weekend)
Alguazas 14/32/145
Alhama de Murcia 28/46/126
Archena 23/40/119
Beniel 4/6/35
Blanca 2/3/30
Bullas 2/3/17
Calasparra 7/16/68
Campos del Río 2/3/98
Caravaca de la Cruz 23/37/89
Cartagena 184/311/85
Cehegín 11/22/73
Ceutí 6/8/50
Cieza 9/40/25
Fortuna 3/11/29
Fuente Álamo 28/36/168
Jumilla 44/61/171
Librilla 1/2/18
Lorca 86/140/91
Lorquí 4/5/56
Mazarrón 37/61/114
Molina de Segura 56/77/77
Moratalla 12/18/153
Mula 7/13/41
Murcia 318/527/70
Ojós 0
Pliego 0
Puerto Lumbreras 7/17/45
Ricote 0
San Javier 38/74/117
San Pedro del Pinatar 31/79/121
Santomera 10/21/61
Torre Pacheco 63/178/176 (14 day rate 498 could take the municipality out of confinement on Monday)
Las Torres de Cotillas 8/11/37
Totana 21/59/65
Ulea 2/2/228
La Unión 19/28/93
Villanueva del Río Segura 2/7/68
Yecla 31/63/90

Image: this shows the worst affected municipalities over the last 7 days

On Monday the Covid Monitoring Committee will meet to review the data and decide if Los Alcázares and Torre Pacheco can be released from border confinement for the Christmas period, and as stated above, whether the restrictions for the festive season will be tightened.

Other Murcia news:

Passengers at Corvera airport 95 per cent down in November

The dramatic effect of the coronavirus pandemic on air travel throughout the world, and in Spain in particular, is again illustrated by the latest monthly report published this week by Aena, the data showing that the number of passengers on international flights landing and taking off at Spanish airports was 90.2 per cent lower in November 2020 than in the same month last year.

Just 1.16 million people flew into or out of Spain during the month, and with the number of passengers on domestic flights falling by 73.3 per cent to 1.73 million the overall total of 2.89 million was 84.1 per cent lower than in November 2019. With one month of 2020 to come, the drop in passenger number so far this year amounts to 71.9 per cent, and although in general the decreases are slightly less extreme at airports in the Canaries the decimation of air travel and international tourism has been close to absolute.

The Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera provides as graphic an illustration of the effect of Covid-19 as any, with the month of November seeing a total of just 1,966 passengers pass through the terminal building, according to Aena. November is never one of the busiest months of the year, of course, as it coincides with the beginning of winter flight schedules, but nonetheless last year there were over 40,000 passengers taking off and landing at Corvera during the month.

The figure for November is -95.2% down on the same month last year and travellers will be unsurprised by the figure given that it has been extremely difficult to book a flight to the airport this autumn and that British passengers, who account for the majority of passengers at the airport, were also subject to an international travel ban during the month.

The cumulative total of passengers at Corvera after 11 months of this year stands at 215,599, and of course any hopes that the 2019 total of just over 1.1 million could at least be matched in 2020 were effectively dashed in March when the pandemic reached Spain.

Alicante airport is faring slightly better, and in November processed 112,618 passengers, but this figure is still -88% down on November last year and the cumulative figure at Alicante is -74.5% down on the 2019 figures.

This autumn and winter passengers attempting to fly to Corvera airport are largely finding it impossible to book a flight on a route that suits them and are being forced to book via Alicante, although this is still a frustratingly precarious process as flights are regularly cancelled or re-scheduled by the airlines.

In spite of regular rumours being posted on local social media, the airport is not closed; just not very active!

Two arrested in Murcia in operation to target criminal gangs transporting illegal migrants.

A major effort is being made to clamp down on the criminal gangs responsible for organising the journeys of irregular economic migrants from the African coastline into Spain following a recent surge in organised “waves of migrants”.

The Canary Islands has been the worst affected, over 20,000 irregular migrants having reached the islands this year alone, but the Murcia Region, Andalucía and Alicante province have also been subjected to intense "waves" of migration at certain points of the year as the criminal gangs intensify their efforts on these alternative routes.

Two people in the Region of Murcia are among 19 to have been arrested by the Policía Nacional for forming part of a criminal organization which was based in Lanzarote in the Canaries and which transported “hundreds” of unauthorized migrants from Morocco to the islands and Spanish mainland.

Apart from those in Murcia, the arrested include others in Lanzarote (10), Cádiz (2), Almería (1), Granada (1), Huesca (1), Madrid (1) and Málaga (1), and 17 of them are of Moroccan nationality.

It is estimated that the operations of the gang brought them over 75,000 euros’ profit before the police received a tip-off from a woman in Morocco. Each irregular migrant ferried to Spanish territory was required to pay between 500 and 1,500 euros, and those who failed to pay were often held captive in Morocco until the money was forthcoming.

The Lanzarote side of the operation was in charge of the logistical side, planning and organizing the sea crossings, and during three house searches on the island police confiscated motor vehicles, mobile phones and various items of computer hardware.

This week there have been two days on which irregular migrants reached the Murcia Region; two boats were intercepted on Wednesday and a further two boats on Friday, all of them landing on beaches belonging to the Cartagena municipality.

8,460 hectares of land in the Campo de Cartagena still suspected of illegal irrigation.

One of the many actions which form part of the overall plan to reduce contamination in the Mar Menor is the process to limit the use of irrigation systems for water-hungry crops in the immediate strip of land surrounding the lagoon.

Although water feeds down into water infrastructures that discharge into the lagoon from further inland in the vast agricultural area sloping down towards the coast, the Campo de Cartagena, the immediate area being tacked relates to 1.5 kilometres from the shores of the lagoon, the plan being to change the agriculture in this area to less water hungry crops and prevent agricultural nitrates being absorbed by rainwater leaching into the soil closest to the body of water.

This plan is being implemented by the CHS water infrastructures administration body, which has responsibility for managing the vast natural aquifer hidden below the surface of the Campo de Cartagena from which billions of litres of water has been illegally extracted and used by the agricultural sector for years, and the CHS has been working on a programme to inspect every plot of land being used by the agricultural sector to check for illegal drilling and water extraction; many of these infractions have already been identified by the Guardia Civíl as part of a lengthy investigation to identify criminal activity which is being processed by the judicial system within the “Caso Topillo”.

Following on-site inspections of agricultural land on which it was suspected that water extracted illegally from the aquifer beneath the Campo de Cartagena was being used for irrigation purposes, the CHS water infrastructures administration body reports that it now estimates that a total of 8,460 hectares of land remain under suspicion rather than the 9,500 hectares originally identified on satellite imagery.

This reduction of a little more than 1,000 hectares is largely due, according to CHS president Mario Urrea, to plots having been mistakenly identified as irrigated when in fact the crops grown there do not benefit from irrigation.

It is also reported that illegal irrigation farming in the area from where runoff water makes its way into the Mar Menor, to the detriment of the marine environment, has now been halted on an area of 500 hectares, and the CHS forecasts that another 5,700 hectares will be added to the total over the next 6 months as charges and accusations are finalized.

So far the CHS has filed a total of 124 final reports with the regional government, affecting 2,200 hectares on which the demand is for the land to be returned to its original condition before crops were grown there, as stipulated in the Law for the Protection of the Mar Menor. Of these 124 cases the government has set procedures in motion regarding 54, according to Sr Urrea, who adds that the figure is rising every week.

Although the pandemic has played havoc with the tourist industry this year, work continues on projects for the future, the hope being that travel will resume next year once the vaccinations take effect:

100,000 euros to restore part of the bombed-out Cathedral in Cartagena. Click to read

Running of the Wine Horses recognised by UNESCO.This year the annual Running of the Wine Horses in Caravaca de la Cruz in the north-west of the Murcia region has been awarded Intangible Cultural heritage by UNESCO.