Social gatherings main source of Balearic Covid-19 outbreaks

STILL RISING: Another 194 people in the Balearics have tested positive for Covid-19 over the last 24 hours
CREDIT: Govern Illes Balears Twitter @goib

SOCIAL gatherings are the main source of recent outbreaks of Covid-19 on the Balearic Islands, according to the regional government.

The spokesman for the Balearic Infectious Disease Autonomous Committee Javier Arranz reported on Thursday there have been 38 outbreaks in the archipelago over the last week, 35 in Mallorca and three in Ibiza, meaning three or more people testing positive from the same origin.

— Advertisement —

Almost all these outbreaks are related to get-togethers between friends and family, he said.

They add up to 164 positive cases, although 90 are asymptomatic, he explained.

Just a day earlier the Balearic regional Health minister urged the public to avoid social gatherings, parties and social contacts as much as possible due to the recent surge in cases of the virus.

"We cannot have so many parties or be with so many groups of people who are not from our family environment", warned Patricia Gomez during a visit to the Son Llatzar hospital in Palma.

CREDIT: Govern Illes Balears Twitter @goib

She said that around 70 per cent of the outbreaks on the islands stem from gatherings of this kind, and put particular emphasis on reminding the young they are not immune from the virus, or that they can be sure they would only suffer mild symptoms.

"We have very young people in intensive care", Gomez pointed out.

She also underlined the importance of self-isolating in the event of experiencing any virus symptoms or having close contact with someone diagnosed with the illness.

On a positive note the regional minister expressed confidence that the new restrictions aimed at controlling the spread of the virus which came into force earlier on Tuesday will produce results over the next couple of weeks and new infections will start to go down.

As it stands though the numbers are still going up.

The official figures from the Balearic regional Health and Consumer ministry for Thursday show another 194 people have tested positive for Covid-19 since Wednesday. The increase pushes up the total since the start of pandemic to 5,207, or taking the Heath Ministry's new criteria for counting coronavirus contagions, which does not include 105 positive serologies from prior to May 11, to 5,102.

Of these, 4,517 correspond to Mallorca, 403 to Ibiza, 146 to Menorca and 36 to Formentera.

There are currently 1,668 active cases on the islands. According to the regional government 63 per cent of the new infections are people aged between 20 and 49.

Source: euroweeklynews.com