Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin 19th September

Covid Spain

On Friday 11th September the total number of coronavirus cases in Spain was 566,326. By Friday 18th September the figure had risen to 640,040, an increase of 73,714 cases in a week or 13.01%. This is a fractionally lower increase than last week,which was 13.4%, although the increase is larger in terms of case numbers; 73,714 as opposed to 67,337.

We do know that more cases are being detected now than in March, as lack of testing capacity in the early days of the pandemic meant that the large majority of the asymptomatic and mild cases were not detected, or tested, so the virus was spreading silently, but in this “second wave” huge efforts are being made to try and detect these cases in order to confine and limit its further spread.This means that the number of deaths will appear to be lower, which it will be in percentage terms, as logically more cases being reported, but the same number of deaths, leads to a lower percentage rate, but this does NOT mean that the virus is any less deadly, or that a milder form is circulating as is being reported on expat social media!

But confirming that cases exist is not the problem. Although the majority of people will suffer mild effects, we know by now that the problem we face this autumn is keeping the virus away from those who are more vulnerable to it, and are more likely to die or suffer severe cases. The normal rhythm of the virus means that we are detecting a rise in cases now, which will be followed by an increase in hospitalisations and deaths are typically 2-3 weeks behind the detection of a rise in cases.

Image: Case numbers in Spain

So the figures we have to look at most carefully relate to the rise in hospitalisations and the fatalities. Spain is the EU country with the most cases, but this week it was also the one that reported the most deaths, with more than 200 deaths a day throughout the week; last Friday the total deaths reported was 29,094, this Friday the figure is 30,495, a difference of 1401, or 200 a day.

The rate at which deaths are growing has tripled in three weeks and is ten times higher than in early August. Although this figure is rising, it is still a long way from the peak of the pandemic in the spring between the 19th March and 15th April when deaths were consistently above 500 a day, peaking around 900 at the end of March, but the figures are on the way up, and noticeably so.

Social media users desperate to deny the lethality of covid frequently shout, why does nobody ever compare road deaths with covid cases; well, at current levels, 20 times more people are dying a day from covid as die from road accidents in all of Spain every day.

More people die from flu than from covid they shout. No they don’t.

This week we have spent many hours carefully researching flu figures. During the last 5 years, an average of 11,292 people have died from flu in the UK according to official British Government statistics each winter. Already this year the UK has reported nearly 50,000 deaths directly attributable to Covid, although the figures have been altered with 5,000 deaths knocked off and we KNOW that these figures do not include many care home deaths. Draw your own conclusion.

Last winter there were 619,000 cases of flu registered in Spain through the health system, 27,700 of those cases were hospitalised, 1,800 ended up in an ICU unit, but in the end, there were only 3,900 deaths attributed to flu, and that included attributing a large number of the “excess deaths” over and above what would be a “normal” level of deaths in Spain to flu, NOT basing the estimate on actual hospital deaths.

Looking at the CONFIRMED NUMBER OF DEATHS in hospitals attributed to flu, the figures are astonishingly low; in the 2017-2018 season for example, only 897 deaths were flu related in all of Spain, 98% of which were related to existing medical conditions, and 49% of whom had not been vaccinated against flu.

In the preceding winter, there were only 421 deaths in hospitals attributed to flu, again, 51% of those who died had not been vaccinated against flu.

The bulk of the figures in the official government estimates of last winter in Spain, come not from the actual hospital deaths, but from examining the MoMo figures and figures produced by the National Institute of Statistics, as many people die at home, or die from the aggravated effects of flu, ie pneumonia. These bodies look at the deaths reported by death certificates in the civil registries of Spain (the INE stats) and the Mortality Monitoring System in Spain (MoMo), of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), which gathers information provided by the 3,929 computerized civil registries of the Ministry of Justice from all over Spain. By examining the percentage of deaths over and above what could normally be expected at any given time and comparing them against the flu spikes (the flu season starts in week 40 of a given year and ends in week 20 of the following year but usually starts to peak around specific weeks depending on the weather and strain of flu), they can generate very accurate estimates of the total number of deaths attributable to flu, and in Spain every year this hovers around the 4,000 mark.

This week the MoMo figures came out for the summer period. In brief;

On the comparison date the Spanish Ministry of Health had reported 30,004 deaths from Covid-19, ALL of which have been PCR tested.

Between 13th March to May 22nd during the main period of the coronavirus pandemic, there were 43,034 more deaths than statistically expected for this time of year, representing an increase of 55% over what would normally be expected.

And during the summer period, 3,560 excess deaths, some of which could arguably be attributed to the warm weather, so for arguments’ sake, let’s remove a generous 1,000, making the total of excess deaths in total, 45,594.

The INE data is always latent, and there has been a big delay in processing the deaths in civil registries, so INE data is only available for the first 21 weeks of 2020, to May 24th, during which period 225,930 people died in total, an increase of 24.1% or 43,945 actual people, over and above what would be normal, very similar to the MoMo, but considerably higher than the 30,000 official covid deaths (bear in mind, we are in September now so the data from May 24th onwards has yet to be added).

Another set of figures which back up these figures were published this week by the 5,547 care homes of Spain, through the regional governments. Their figures stated that 20,058 residents died in care homes during the first wave of the covid crisis from covid, although most of these were not PCR tested, so therefore the Ministry of Health and WHO refuse to include them in the official figures, but, they do tie in with the excess death figures of the MoMo and NIE.

So in conclusion, social media users shouting that more people die of flu than covid, are wrong.Very wrong.

There are people in denial all over the world. This little story here from Madrid is one illustration of what is happening:Medics shocked by aggressive graffiti on Madrid hospital attacking the medical profession
“Assassin medics", "complicit medics" the graffiti said.
Health workers arriving at work in the Hospital de La Paz in Madrid were shocked and distressed by graffiti which appeared on the façade of the Madrid hospital, aimed directly at the health workers, whom they accuse of being "murderers" and "accomplices", despite all the effort and dedication they have shown since the beginning of the pandemic to saving lives.
Although the graffiti was rapidly erased, it has aroused outrage, both from health workers and the general public, who consider it unacceptable that a group that is so essential is being attacked in this fashion, especially taking into account the health emergency situation that the planet is going through as a whole.
"From being on the front line of the pandemic to being called accomplices and murderers," said the Auxiliary Nursing Care Technicians (TCAE) on social networks. "You have to be miserable and mean to do this type of graffiti against Health Personnel. Go to work or just take a walk down the street and find this ... "

The truth is that, although during the harshest months of the coronavirus pandemic people went out onto the balconies to applaud health professionals on the front line, little by little that solidarity is dissipating. Many health workers found themselves being discriminated against by their neighbours, who instead of seeing them as "heroes" began to see them as “sources of contagion”.
Now, as the second wave of infections builds, they are starting to have to face this type of insult and attack once again as the public rebels against the constrictions, and implications, of, Covid.

Yet more than 50,000 medical professionals in Spain, themselves contracted covid during the pandemic.

So, quickly back to hospitals.
Some areas are already experiencing problems with hospitals, particularly Madrid, which reports that Covid-19 patients occupy 22% of the beds available. The worst affected areas for bed occupancy are 13% in Castilla-La Mancha, 12% in Aragon and 11% in the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands ( in Murcia the figure is 8.5%).
ICU intensive care beds are filling quickly; in La Rioja the occupancy exceeds 60% (90% if the reinforcement beds are not counted), followed by Madrid (60%), Castilla-La Mancha (55%), Aragón (48%), Murcia (48%), Navarra (40%) and the Balearic Islands (40%).

There is more capacity as hospitals can use beds normally allocated to post-surgical procedures, but we are already seeing hospitals clearing wards and preparing them for covid patients; the Madrid Government has this week confirmed that it is preparing plans to re-open the IFEMA exhibition centre field hospital and there have been other similar stories elsewhere.

In short, hospitals are confidently expecting the number of hospitalisations to rise, and then the number of deaths, to rise, based on the current rise in cases being recorded.

Mathematical modelling concurs with this; Murcia will reach 1,000 cases a day in October if the rate of contagions continues to increase at its current rate:

Professor of Physics at the University of Murcia (UMU) Antonio Guirao, supported and funded by the Carlos III Health Institute of Madrid, uses mathematical models to make simulations on how the pandemic will evolve, both in Spain and in Murcia, and has proven to be surprisingly accurate in his predictions to date.

This week he has published updated information with different scenarios. In model 1, if measures stay as they are now, he predicts that at the beginning of October, «the incidence could be doubled with a thousand daily infections and an accumulated of up to 20,000 people affected in the Region of Murcia “, he said in an interview with la Opinión, causing “ more stress, saturation and collapse of hospitals in the next month."

In scenario 2, the effectiveness of the measures that are being applied improves, and the Region of Murcia would reach 20,000 infections in November and not at the beginning of October, as the first formula foresees. By this point, nationally, Spain would reach one million cases.

He said in the interview that when the restrictions were relaxed after confinement, the epidemic, which was controlled, began to grow again, although in a slower way than it did in March, since in summer "We had social distancing and the use of a mask, something that we did not have at the beginning."

However, now the cases have been doubling every two weeks, says Guirao.

What is being done about it?

Restrictions: The most widely covered story of the week was on Friday afternoon when Madrid announced that it would be imposing movement restrictions on more than 850,000 people (13% of the total population of Madrid) in 37 health areas and 8 municipalities, as well as mass testing nearly 1 million people.By Saturday there are already movements underway to try and replace the regional president for making the decision, the same protests planned and the same questions being asked as across the country in all the areas in which this type of restriction is being used; how is it going to be enforced and “does this mean I can´t have the family over for Sunday lunch because they don´t live in the same area as me etc…..”, and calls from various business sectors for aid, specifically the hostelry sector. This week the performing arts sector has been out protesting in the streets across Spain, but regional governments are attempting to put on “socially distanced” cultural activities, all the time aware that bringing together 200 people to watch a cultural show goes against everything else they are trying to implement and keep people apart.

The same restrictions are already being applied by other regional governments. This week the same “mobility restrictions” are being used in Catalonia, Galicia, Castilla y León, Castilla La Mancha, Extremadura, Valencia, Cantabria, Balearic Islands, Aragón, La Rioja, and of course, here in Murcia (Jumilla and Lorca are currently in a “flexibilised phase one confinement”.)

The whole aim of this is to stop an overall lockdown and leave the control firmly in the hands of the 17 autonomous regional governments, and again this week, the government has reiterated its determination to do just that. There has been pressure on Madrid to declare a state of emergency, but as the cases are still a long way from the levels of March, this is being resisted, as it is elsewhere.

Vaccines:

First clinical trial of Covid vaccine in Spain gets underway in Madrid.The Janssen trials involve two hospitals in Madrid and one in Santander.

On Tuesday the vaccination of 150 volunteer participants in the phase 2 clinical trial of the first vaccine against Covid-19 to be trialled in Spain, made by pharmaceutical company Janssen, began in Madrid.

The Madrid hospitals of La Paz and La Princesa are, together with the Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla in Santander, the three centers participating in this clinical trial, which seeks to find the most appropriate dose and regimen to achieve the best antibody response. This trial, authorized on August 28th by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products, will analyze a vaccine at an early stage, which is not usual in Spain, but the need to urgently find a protective vaccine against Covid-19 is felt to outweigh the potential risks.The 150 Madrid volunteers have been spilt into two groups,75 per hospital, 100 between 18 and 55 years old and 50 over 65 years, who will carry out the vaccination trials in the Clinical Trials Units up until September 22nd.The phase 2 clinical trial will last between 14 and 16 months in total.This is a randomized clinical trial in which different branches of treatment will be analyzed. In all cases, two vaccinations will be carried out in each patient, so that some patients will only receive a placebo, others one dose and others two doses of the product under investigation.Furthermore, it is a double-blind trial in order to prevent that the results may be influenced by the placebo effect or by observer bias.

Sidenote: One in 7 volunteers of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine report side effects.
The Moscow Times reported on Tuesday that one in seven volunteers have complained of side effects including weakness and muscle pain after taking Russia’s coronavirus vaccine, Russia’s health minister said on Tuesday.“Approximately 14% have small complaints of weakness, muscle pain for 24 hours and an occasional increase in body temperature,” TASS quoted Murashko as saying.
Murashko said the symptoms “level off” by the next day.“The complications are described in the instructions and are predictable,” he said.

Clinical trials resume of Oxford vaccine
On Saturday Oxford University reported that it will resume clinical trials of the Covid-19 vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, following an interruptionon the 6th September when a volunteer in the United Kingdom suffered an adverse reaction.At the end of August, the EU closed a "first contract" with the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca guaranteeing access to 300 million doses of the vaccine, so the suspension of the trials was a serious cause for concern in Europe and in all the world. Spain has pre-ordered 3 million doses.

Testing: One development this week is the purchase of antigen testers to speed up testing: Murcian Health Authority buying half a million rapid antigen tests
These can achieve a test result in 15 minutes:

Although there has been no official confirmation at this point, La Verdad reported on Friday that the Murcian Government was buying half a million antigen tests which would be used to speed up covid testing in situations in which speed was of the essence. The paper suggested that the antigen tests would be used in situations such as when cases were detected in schools, for example, to quickly ascertain if a problem extended to the whole class or before pupils returned to school after a break.
The antigen tests are becoming increasingly popular with the authorities because they give quick results, with a fairly reliable result available in just 15 minutes, without the need to send the test off to a laboratory.

They are also inexpensive; the brand the Murcian government is buying, the Abbott Pharmaceuticals Panbio Covid-19 tester, licensed by the EU at the beginning of September, has already been purchased by the Andalucian (half a million tests) and Madrid(2 million units) governments, costing 4 euros each.

Quarantining: We still have no firm news of a reduction in the quarantine period, but we're getting closer.... On Thursday the Health Minister, Salvador Illa, said that the quarantine period would not be reduced without "solid scientific evidence" to back up a decision, but later in the same day his number two said that the department was "evaluating" the measure and was waiting to see whether other European countries went ahead and what the effect was. At the moment France is the only country to have taken the plunge and reduced the period to 7 days.

Schools: problems have continued right through the week all over the country. There are now dozens of schools with classes in quarantine, some schools closed and in others replacement teachers are simply being swapped in as teachers fall sick. Murcia amply reflects this sitaution; as of Friday we have well over 200 pupils and teachers quarantined; 6 incidents on Friday in Cartagena, Murcia, Torres de Cotillas, Molina de Segura and Mazarrón and La Unión, Blanca, Alhama de Murcia, Santomera and Archena earlier in the week.

Children in Lorca and Jumilla have not even returned to school yet as their municipalities are confined, and Totana and Lorqui have voluntarily kept their children at home as the municipalities are very close to confinement orders. The regional government has purchased thousands of tablets for the use of students at home, but there have been organisational delays this week as the region adjusts to the new situation and nobody is attempting to even pretend that things will run smoothly this winter; there will be a lot of quarantines and inconvenience, which are being seen pragmatically as inevitable and unavoidable given the current situation.

Image; Hospitalisations in Murcia

Covid Murcia

On Friday 11th the region had 5669 active cases; this Friday the figure has risen to 7,097, a rise of 1428 active cases in a week, or 204 a day, taking into consideration the number of cured cases and deaths.

The total number of cases increased from 12,478 to 15,806, an actual increase of the number of cases detected by 3328 in a WEEK.

The numbers are gradually increasing; whereas last week 300 was starting to become normal, by the end of this week the figures are leaning towards the 5 and 600s; Monday 457, Tuesday 499, Wednesday 370, Thursday 447,Friday was 675 and Saturday, which hasn´t even been written up yet, is 555.

Hospitalisations remained fairly steady all week, and actually dropped by the end of the week (see graph above); by Saturday we have 312 in hospital with serious cases and 59 in intensive care, more than 50% of the 115 bed ICU capacity of the region, but these figures are no worse than last week, which is good.

Image; fatalities in the Murcia Region

The fatalities are starting to really rise now; during all of June there were 2 deaths, one in July, 8 in August, but as of the 19th September we have reported 31 (2 of them today). As we've reported above, the expectation is that these figures will continue to rise, so all that can be said is what we already all know; precautions should be taken to protect ourselves against contacts.

The tragedy of the situation for expats living here in the region is that beaches are empty, bars and restaurants are pretty empty, the sun is shining and the weather continues to be fabulous, most places worth visiting are open with disinfectant and hand gel practically oozing of the doors they're so clean....the risks on a daily basis are low. The risk remains in the contacts, so all the coach trips, book swaps, dances, music nights etc which are the staple fayre of retirees here have been cancelled as a security measure. It's sad, but we just have to accept it, be pragmatic and hope that our municipality doesn´t have to be confined. Below is the latest list updated from last night showing where the cases have been detected in the LAST 7 DAYS here in Murcia and what the rate is per 100,000 of population; as you can see clearly, Jumilla, Totana, Lorquí and Lorca have the highest number of cases per head of population, followed by Alhama and Mula; the cases are widely spread.

Note, the first figure shown is the actual number of cases diagnosed in the last 7 days, the second is the IA rate for the last 7 days: In brackets the number of cases is indicated as either a positive or negative compared to the situation on Thursday)

Abanilla 2/36 (0) ( This means 2 cases in the last two weeks and an IA rate of 36, so very low, with no change in case numbers from yesterday)
Abarán 14/108 (+1)
Águilas 24/68 (+1)
Albudeite 0
Alcantarilla 110/223 (+16)
Aledo 3/293 (+2)
Los Alcázares 31/192 (+1)
Alguazas 15/93 (+6)
Alhama de Murcia 94/321 (+23)
Archena 64/331(+18)
Beniel 41/362 (+9)
Blanca 10/152 (+3)
Bullas 11/95 (-2)
Calasparra 0
Caravaca de la Cruz 48/186 (+1)
Cartagena 196/91 (-10)
Cehegín 19/126 (-1)
Ceutí 35/296 (+6)
Cieza 60/171 (+7)
Fortuna 24/207 (+2)
Fuente Álamo 30/180 (-1)
Jumilla 235/918 (-4)
Librilla 3/56
Lorca 521/551 (+21)
Lorquí 40/560 (+5)
Mazarrón 70/164(+17)
Molina de Segura 124/154 (+13)
Moratalla 8/102 (+3)
Mula 67/337 (+10)
Murcia 847/186 (+79)
Ojós 1/200 (+1)
Pliego 2/52
Puerto Lumbreras 12/78 (+5)
Ricote 1/79
San Javier 64/197 (+9)
San Pedro del Pinatar 33/129 (-1)
Santomera 32/197 (+7)
Torre Pacheco 104/291 (-7)
Las Torres de Cotillas 30/167 (-6)
Totana 237/740 (+30)
La Unión 35/202 (-6)
Villanueva del Río Segura 10/343 (-2)
Yecla 102/296 (+16)
Those from other regions diagnosed in Murcia 51

Total 3460 . Acumulated IA rate in the last 7 days: 231
 

In an effort to not write only about covid, we have started this week to compile a daily round-up of the main covid-related articles rather than write an article for everything that's happening, as we simply don´t have the resources. If 1,000 people had chosen to pay for the weekly round-up as you have done, we could have kept on another writer, but unfortuately most people want everything for free, so there is a limit to what can be physically written up.

In brief this is a bit more of Murcia covid this week (leaving out the schools):

Águilas cancels Carnival 2021 due to Coronavirus: The Mayoress said it was the hardest decision she had ever been forced to make, but couldn´t take the risk due to all of the close contact work which has to take place before the carnival.Click to read

23 health centres on red alert across the region: Click for info

Jumilla issues 30 denuncias in the first few days of returning to a “flexibilised phase one confinement”. With the highest rate of covid in the whole of the region, Jumilla has been put back into confinement. In the first few days 30 sanctions have been issued for not wearing masks, exceeding the maximum capacity permitted in a vehicle and travelling outside of the permitted area.

La Rafa camping in Bullas closes sports facilities due to the positive of a worker until 21st September.

Totana; requests additional attention from its residents as the municipality records 73 cases in the 24 hours: if nothing changes, the municipality is heading back into confinement

21 groups from the UMU University of Murcia are engaged in various research porojects relating to covid-19.

Molina de Segura implements new measures to make the weekly street markets safer, including better distancing between stalls and limiting the number of shoppers at a time.

Regional hostelry sector wants testing to attract more tourists to the region

It's obviously been a difficult summer for the hostelry sector and with 90% of coastal hotels set to close for the winter, the body representing the sector, Hostetur, had a number of points to discuss when meeting with the regional Minister for tourism.

Quarantining has lost a significant amount of business for the sector this autumn and Hostetur was keen to put forward its point of view that the use of testing (possibly the new antigen tests) in the regional airport and in hotels, rural lodgings and campsites, would help to install confidence in the Murcian tourism offering.Obviously, the body is hoping that the regional government will agree to pay for the testing, rather than the hotels themselves.The hostelry sector is pushing for a regional IMSERSO-style programme, but nationally this has been cancelled (still waiting for official confirmation but other regions state that they have been given confirmation of its cancellation). IMSERSO takes pensionsers to areas in low season at a bargain price, giving a welcome boost to hotels in low season.
 

72 elderly have died in the care homes of the region since the beginning of the pandemic.
The number of elderly who have died in care homes in the Region since the beginning of the pandemic totals 72, of which 66 died in the first wave and another six in the second, according to figures provided by the Community itself. At the national level, the number of deaths in these centers officially recorded amounts to 23,242, although some regional authorities have not fully updated their figures for several months.The majority of care home deaths have not been included in the national fatalaities total as during the first wave there was insufficient testing material and those who died within the home environment were regularly not tested.

Mazarrón town hall closes due to covid positive: On Thursday Mazarrón reported 10 new cases of covid. All presencial appointments in the town hall building for Friday are cancelled until Tuesday 22nd.

Later on Friday the council also announced the closure of the Centro Cultural de Mazarrón which houses the Universidad Popular and the municipal library in Mazarrón town, due to the positive case in a cleaner. All staff will be PCR tested and the building given a deep disinfection.

Caravaca de la Cruz: Archivel will leave the flexibilised phase one confinement of the last 2 weeks as only six cases have been detected in the last week. At one point the pedanía had an AI rate of 1,500 per 100,000 of population; this has now dropped to 500.

San Javier: The council supplies municipal staff with a "Kit Covid". This includes 2 re-usable masks, a bottle of disinfectant hand gel and a disinfectant spray, together with instructions, and all branded with the town hall logo!. All of the staff working for the town hall have been PCR tested and none yielded a positive result.

Murcia City: the Gran Vía will be closed to traffic on Sunday to allow Murcianos to walk and social distance.

Torre Pacheco: With 185 active cases, inclñuding 13 in the last 24 hours,  Torre Pacheco is now ramping up its public disinfections rota and has decided to now close all children's play areas in the municipality, so in outlying districts as well as the main town, these areas are all being sealed off.

Cieza: 4 workers at the SUAP centre test positive.(attached to a health centre, handles emergencies). A man was also hospitalised in Cieza the day after attending a communion when already ill.

Murcian health service has recruited 1500 additional new staff in the last few months to cope with the pandemic said the regional health minister: in the month of August of this year, the Murcian Health Service has 1,500 more professionals than in the same month of 2019, a total of 867 more professionals for Specialized Care, and 357 more than the previous year for Primary Care, taking into account that this year's newly qualified trainees will also be incorporated throughout this month of September (347 in total have a place awarded in the Region).

Military tracers begin work in Murcia Region:30 coronavirus tracers have been allocated to the Murcia Region

-  Anger over foam party held in the military club of Cartagena

- Number of positives in the care homes of the region rise to 121
- Archena day centre for the elderly closed

- Six Archena residents have been sanctioned for failing to observe the quarantine period reports the town hall of Archena. Local Police are carrying out inspections on all those known to be in quarantine to ensure that they are complying with the measure.

Property news:

Nearly 25 per cent less property sales in Murcia during July. Click for full article

It’s hardly surprising that property sales figures this summer are a little unreliable when attempting to define what the current state of play is regarding the property market, given the delays in completing transactions due to the coronavirus situation and the stagnation of the market during the lockdown period.

Given the time delays in processing transactions caused by the pandemic and the difficulties of viewing during lockdown, it’s not surprising at all that the stats relating to completed transactions during July produced by the National Statistics Institute will show a substantial drop in the number of transactions completed during July.

However, the figures are a lot better than those posted during the last 4 months which were totally distorted by the coronavirus crisis.

The July figures show that property transactions fell in the Region of Murcia by 24.7% in the month of July.

Migration:

Frontex border forces using carbon dioxide detectors in search for irregular migration: these are now being used in Spain and can detect the presence of a human or animals in less than a second. Click to read

Two crew of fishing boat which brought 79 Algerians to Murcia last week arrested.The two "pateristas" who brought 79 Algerians in a fishing boat to Cartagena last week have been arrested, after the Policia Nacional was able to formally identify them.

Initially several of those on board claimed to be the captain and it has taken some time to formally identify the men responsible; should the captain and his mate have remained anonymous, then the police would have no choice other than to release them along with the passengers, enabling them to make their way back to Algeria and undertake another run. The boat has been seized and sent to the police pound.
The two men are Algerian nationals aged 44 and 46 who are being linked by the National Police to a criminal organization dedicated to trafficking in human beings.

Total of irregular Algerian migrants landing in Murcia reaches 272 and 19 boats over two days

The authorities have had a difficult week, calm weather conditions bringing 19 boatloads of irregular migrants in a 48 hour period. In most cases the vessels were intercepted out at sea, as once it became obvious that another wave of small boats were on the way, aerial surveillance helped to identify where the boats were approaching the coast and marine rescue boats were despatched to pick them up out at sea.

The criminal gangs who organise this transport to Spain are getting better at co-ordinating the boats so that they arrive in waves, increasing the chances of some of the boats being able to land by spreading them out across a large area of coastline, as well as also launching boats to target Alicante and Almeria at the same time.

In Almeria over the same time period more than 250 people arrived in 16-17 boats. Cruz Roja in Almería say they have dealt with 3,400 irregular migrants landing in small boats so far this year.

The aim of rescue services is to intercept boats at sea to prevent the migrants dispersing once on land. Normally this is so that an attempt to repatriate them back to their country of origin can be made, although at the moment the added complication of covid means that some of the migrants are arriving as covid positives, for which reason it is necessary to covid test all of those arriving and quarantine anyone with whom the traveller had direct contact, ie anyone in the same boat.

In the last 2 days police have found themselves having to try and detain boatloads landing in Isla Plana, la Manga and San Pedro del Pinatar, who landed before they could be reached by police and started to disperse into the surrounding countryside.

This latest wave of arrivals has sparked off furious political debate, the PP accusing the PSOE socialist government delegate of turning Murcia into the Lampedusa of Spain and of leaving Murcia without the necessary resources to handle this seemingly endless wave of pateras. The full article gives a lot more detail, explains why these are called irregular migrants and why they are not refugees and attempts to explain why Murcia is experiencing this issue. Click here for the second article this week

Other news:

Turtles: what a joy. 43 loggerhead turtle hatchlings emerge from the nest located in La Manga. 3 hatched in incubation, 40 hatched on the beach. On Saturday morning we were told a further 3 had hatched on the beach, so we now have 46 precious, 6cm long turtles, weighing in at an average of just 17 grams each.The full article explains what is happening, how they will be cared for and gives more details about the video above which shows 11 of the 1 year old turtles which hatched last year undergoing "training" in Valencia ready to be released into the sea.......Click for the full article

Killer whales behaving badly!

This week was the anniversary of the Gota Fría which caused so much damage. There are many initiatives now underway to prevent further problems in the future. The regional government has itself announced an investment of 77 million euros and 250 practical actions to improve drains, sewage networks, water channels, roads etc around the region, all with the intention of minimising the impact of heavy Gota Fría storms in the future.The actions are being co-ordinated in collaboration with our regional councils and other relevant bodies through a working group which meets regularly, and the councils are involved in their own projects, working to resolve local issues themselves as part of this huge project. This week it met to discuss further plans. Typical of the type of action is this one, announced this week in Torre Pacheco. The council has acquired the necessary land to build a storm tank next to the purification plant, so that more of the storm water can be handled and stored when there is a major event, but more importantly, as the water filters down through the soil in the months following  a storm, and runs into agricultural drainage channels, it can be cleaned and fed back for agricultural use instead of running off into the Mar Menor. For the main part, the measures aren´t very exciting, but in the long-term, they will all make a difference. To read: Torre Pacheco Council cedes land for construction of a storm tank.

Roman column discovered following landslip, removed in Monteagudo. The column was found when part of a retaining wall collapsed in Calle Parra in Monteagudo, the subsequent landslip exposing part of the ornate Roman column.

The column, dating from between the 1st and 2nd centuries, is being carefully extracted, a process which required the removal of a significant volume of earth and rubble and the securing of the surrounding structure, the total of which comes in at a price of 13,288.95 euros for the council.Click to  read

Cartagena Council installs cameras in Los Urrutias, Los Nietos and Playa Honda. The council has used the Wi-Fi infrastructure to give a live video feed to the town hall. Click to read

Two injured in crash on the AP-7 by Los Alcázares exit. Click to read

Batman caught driving Lamborghini without paperwork in central Madrid. Police said that even “Superheroes must abide by the rules” and sent him back to the batcave with a fine. Click to view