This week there has been a significant amount of frenetic activity as Spain counts down to the end of the state of emergency which concludes at midnight on 21st June, meaning that as dawn breaks on the 22nd June, Spanish residents will once again have freedom of movement around the country.
With most schools remaining closed until after the summer holidays, many families from the cities are expected to take to the road on Monday and head for second homes on the coast, and on the same day borders will once again be open permitting EU and Schengen nation residents to cross into Spain.
However, there is still considerable confusion about the topic of British nationals entering Spain as the topic of quarantine restrictions has still not been resolved between Spain and the UK and late on Friday evening this is still the case in spite of reports that conversations are underway.
Hopefully this will be resolved over the weekend (more below).
Spain Covid figures
Revised Covid fatalities total for Spain is now 28,313:There are nine current outbreaks in Spain, all of which the Health Ministry says are under control.The Spanish Ministry of Health finally issued a revised death total for the number of fatalities officially recorded in Spain during the Covid-19 crisis on Friday, raising the total by 1177 to 28,313.
The Ministry revised its system for reporting daily Covid data towards the end of May, but since then has consistently failed to publish updated data leading to confusion and accusations that the Ministry is trying to hide the true extent of the pandemic.
Daily data based on cases diagnosed using the PCR swab test system (not the rapid antibody tests which are not included in the official figures) is gathered from the 17 autonomous regions of Spain and presented the following day, but the Health Ministry said that the figures needed to be revised as records pertaining to the actual date of death were known to be inaccurate and requested that the individual health services rectify the entries made in the central system, a process which has taken nearly two weeks longer than intended.
However, the figures are still not believed to be accurate and two separate sources both indicate considerably higher mortality levels than have been reported through the “official system”, the INE, which gathers data from the Civil Registries and the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid which has produced its own analysis via the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo) which takes into account data between March 12th and May 13th this year, comparing it to the same period in previous years.
Their calculations show 43,360 more fatalities than would normally be expected in this same period, so whereas 77,362 deaths would be the average between these dates, there were 120,722 during the same period this year, representing an increase of 56%.
The Government maintains that the figure of 43,000 from the MOMO may also include people who died for different reasons, some of which will be indirectly due to the pandemic; some will have avoided going to a hospital to treat other ailments or did so too late.However, the Ministry has still not provided data on patients who died in nursing homes as a result of Covid-19.This is expected to add significantly to the reported totals as for example, 5,981 of the 15,043 people reported to have died in the Madrid region alone, died in care homes.
The INE, National Statistics Institute, cites the death count to be 43,945 higher than during the same period last year.
Nine active outbreaks
The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, said that there have been 34 “outbreaks” in Spain during the last month, accounting for 982 people. Currently, nine of these outbreaks remain active, but the Minister maintains that "they are all under control."
Steady resurgencee in number of new cases across Spain this week:
During the last five days there has been a steady increase in the number of new cases reported; on Friday there were 154 new cases in the last 24 hours across Spain, on Thursday 143 , On Wednesday 141, On Tuesday 76 and on Monday 40.
Deaths in the last 7 days:
The Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Ceuta, Extremadura, Galicia, Melilla. Murcia, Navarra and the Basque Country have not reported any deaths within the last seven days
The total deaths in the following regions have all increased within the last seven days; Andalusia 1,426 (+2); Aragon 911 (+2); Asturias 333 (+1); Castilla-La Mancha 3,022 (+2); Castilla y León 3,022 (+9); Catalonia 5,662 (+3); Valencian Community 1,430 (+2); Madrid 8,416 (+17); Basque Country 1,554 (+2).
New cases during the last 24 hours have been detected in 14 of the 17 autonomous regions, the highest figures being in Madrid, Catalonia and Aragón:
Andalusia, 12,864(+18); Aragon 5,880 (+25); Asturias 2,435; Balearic Islands 2,169; Canary Islands, 2,402 (+4); Cantabria 2,342 (+1); Castilla-La Mancha 17,894; Castilla y León 17,894 (+6); Catalonia 60,450 (+32); Ceuta 163; Valencian Community 11,451 (+5); Extremadura 3,000 (+1); Galicia 9,169 (+3); Madrid 71,007 (+44); Melilla 124; Murcia 1,638 (+4); Navarra 5,370 (+7); Basque Country, 13,679 (+2); and in La Rioja 4,072 (+2).
On Friday the UK registered 173 deaths in the last 24 hours, with 1146 new cases, bringing the total fatalities to 42,461 and the total cases to 301,815.
On Friday the WHO warned that the worldwide pandemic is accelerating; Thursday's 150,000 new cases were the highest yet reported on one day. Globally 453,834 have died, with 8.53 million cases.
“The world is in a new and dangerous phase,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "The virus is still spreading fast, it is still deadly, and most people are still susceptible."
Murcia Covid Figures
This week there has been a slow but steady trickle of new cases, a disappointing situation for the region given the very low number of cases throughout the pandemic and the positive evolution of the virus here.
As a result the region now has:
Active cases: 77 (72 last Friday, 71 the week before and 161 the previous week)
Total cases diagnosed from the start of the crisis: 3,205 (1641 diagnosed by swab testing, 1564 by rapid antibody testing)
71 people are in home quarantine (this figure was 60 last week, and 45 the week before)
6 are hospitalised, 2 of them in intensive care (last week 6 were hospitalised with 3 in intensive care)
Fatalities: 150 (this is the same as last week with just one death in the last 3 weeks)
Number of cured cases from those diagnosed via swab testing 1,414.
The map above shows the Covid “hotspots in the Region of Murcia during the crisis; the darker the colour, the more cases per capita.
Location of the 22 new Covid cases diagnosed in the Murcia region during the last 14 days(bear in mind that at least 10 of these relate to the agricultural workers who returned to Murcia from France with Covid, who are dotted around the region):
Alcantarilla 1
Cartagena 3
Cieza 2
Jumilla 1
Lorca 4
Mazarrón 2
Murcia 6
Puerto Lumbreras 1
Torre Pacheco 2
Total 22
Swab tests will be carried out on the contacts of all new Covid cases detected in Spain
Agreement has been made between the national and regional governments of Spain to increase swab testing this week: A new protocol has been agreed between the Ministry of Health and the 17 regional autonomous governments to extend the programme of PCR swab testing to all of the close contacts of new confirmed Covid-19 cases, regardless of whether they have developed symptoms or not.
The document has already been sent to the Public Health Commission for evaluation.
The latest 'Guide for the Identification and Follow-up of Contacts of Covid-19 cases', published in May by the Ministry of Health, considers “close contacts” to be people who have cared for a patient, family, cohabitants and co-workers, who have had contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case from 48 hours before the onset of symptoms and until the moment in which the case is identified and isolated.
In addition, to be considered as such, they must have provided care for the patient, have been in the same place, at a distance of less than two meters and for more than 15 minutes, or have travelled on long-haul public transport within contact distance of the new case.
Currently, and until the new protocol is approved, close contacts are quarantined for 14 days, and this test is only performed on people with symptoms compatible with the new coronavirus infection.
Reduction of the quarantine period to ten days is currently under consideration.
The use of swab testing to rapidly identify and isolate potential Covid cases is part of the strategies likely to be more widely used in the coming months to try and limit the spread of Covid in Spain without putting large segments of the population into isolation. The Health Ministry has again reiterated this week that it will not carry out widespread testing in Spain.
What is the "new normal" in the Murcia Region?
Measures agreed for the new normal in the Murcia Region from Monday
The regional government of Murcia has finalised detailing the measures which will be implemented at a regional level as Murcia moves into the “new normal” at midnight on Sunday 21st June (effectively starting from 00:01 on Monday 22nd June); the time at which the state of emergency in Spain concludes.
At this point, control of measures imposed returns fully to the regional and local governments, who must establish the criteria for their own regions based on the specific needs and circumstances of each.
The measures detailed below were presented to the 45 local councils of the region on Tuesday and formalised by the regional government at the end of the week.
On Tuesday and in the early part of next week Murcia is expecting the arrival of a significant number of second home owners and holidaymakers from the major cities and interior areas of Spain, which have always been the most important tourism source for the region, and a second wave of visitors from 1st July when the “holiday season” begins in Spain.
Foreign visitor numbers are also expected to increase, although to a lesser degree and at a slower pace, due to the confusion which continues about whether the UK will insist on maintaining a 14 day quarantine period, in which case Spain may impose a reciprocal measure, and the lack of flights from exterior destinations (see below for more info about this topic).
The measures which the regional government will maintain include the obligatory wearing of masks in public areas and social distancing of 1.5 metres as established in the national decree and other measures specific to this region.
The principal points which may affect foreign residents are:
Beaches.
At the beginning of the week the regional government planned to enforce a maximum occupancy of 2.25 square metres per bather.How each municipality enforces this distancing on its own beaches would be left to the discretion of the local councils.
Last week some beaches in Barcelona were closed by police due to the sheer number of bathers crowding onto the beaches and different measures are being enforced throughout Spain including drone vigilance, allocating parcels of sand, limiting the number of hours a bather can occupy a plot of sand, running a ticket system permitting a set number of bathers onto a beach for a specified time period, all sorts of measures, depending on the individual local council.
However, there was an immediate outcry from local councils and by the end of the week the regional government had been forced to back down and announced that it would not enforce any type of social distancing on the beaches; it would be left to the councils themselves to manage their own beaches and for the public to behave in a responsible fashion and ensure their own safety.
No councils have expressed an intention to physically cordon off any of their beaches, and given the generally low occupancy on Murcian beaches, this is likely to remain the case throughout this summer. As Murcia has around 200 beaches and coves for bathers to enjoy, there is generally little pressure on space, unlike areas such as Benidorm and Barcelona where beaches are being divided into parcels in order to enforce distancing due to the sheer volume of bathers and lack of beach space.
To see a full report on every beach in the region, together with maps and photographs, go to the
Murcia Beach Guide.
Bars and restaurants
The decision has been taken to limit the occupancy of bars and restaurants in the Murcia region to 75% in order to ensure social distancing. The use of masks when entering or moving around within the establishment is mandatory, although those sitting together will not be obliged to wear a mask once seated. A report published in one of the national media this week listed waiters as being one of the most at-risk professions in Spain at the moment, waiters complaining that the public seemed to view the wearing of masks as a joke and eight out of ten members of the public would not wear a mask when entering or moving around in the premises, presenting a constant health risk to other users and creating a hygiene nightmare for business owners trying to maintain a clean and hygienic environment for all their staff and customers.
All of the hygiene requiirements for the hostelry sector established within phase 3 will continue in the Region of Murcia next week.
Numbers permitted at cultural and public events
The Murcian government has limited the number of people permitted to attend an open air event to 500, and set the limit at 200 for events held inside a physical structure.
Discos and dances
Discos can open for drinks and socialising, but dance floors are not permitted to open and tables must be positioned on spaces normally reserved for dancing. This will be reviewed on 1st July.
Other measures:
Private gatherings: All limitations on gatherings at home have been removed.
Funerals: Up to 60 people can participate in an outdoor event and 30 indoors.
Weddings: Maximum of 250 people may attend outdoor wedding celebrations and 150 indoors, always without exceeding 75% of the venue capacity.
Shopping: Commercial premises must limit their occupancy to 75% of the capacity, recreational areas of shopping centers to 50%.
Street markets: Street markets may open to a maximum of 75% of the normal level of market stalls
Swimming pools: 75% limit on the capacity of both public and private pools.
Leisure activities for young people and children: Managed indoor activities are permitted to 50% of the maximum capacity of the venue, including staff.
Group size in bars: Bars are limited to 75% of their capacity, and the maximum number of people permitted per group of tables or per table, is 25.
The regional government has published an enormous document detailing the new measures and how each must be applied, but most of this is of little interest to general readers. If anyone would specifically like to read it,
this is the link
These measures will be reviewed mid-July.
De-escalation exposes old divides: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same)
On Wednesday the Ministry of Health endorsed the proposal for the health regions of Barcelona and Lleida to advance to phase 3 of the coronavirus de-escalation plan starting with immediate effect on Thursday, which brought all of the Cataluña region into phase 3.
But within hours of securing the movement to phase 3, the Catalan Government had opted to exercise its right to leave the national state of emergency once in phase 3 and regain total control of its own region.
The President of the Generalitat denounced the "lack of dialogue" with the Spanish government maintaining that "a different state of alarm would have been possible", reiterating the critical stance of the Catalan regional government towards the national Government of Spain, hardly surprising given the attitude of non-compromise between the two parties which has been the normal ever since the election of a Catalan government with a pronounced leaning towards a separatist agenda!
The Catalan Minister of Health, Alba Vergés, said it was a good thing that "the Government of the Generalitat had recovered its powers. The de-escalation and all the muddle they caused is now over."
The Catalan regional government will permit freedom of movement throughout the whole of the region in spite of having one of the highest rates of new cases in the country, but will maintain the other measures laid down nationally for the final phase of de-escalation in spite of insisting that “Cataluña "comes out of phase 3" and enters a new stage with "simpler regulation that is not based on prohibitions as was the case until now."
Their move was swiftly followed by the Basque Country, another region which supports the separatist movement .
Some things never change!
Other de-escalation info: Cartagena continues to re-open outlying medical consultorios: The town hall stresses the need to pre-book appointments in order to minimise the risk. Re-opening the large number of outlying medical consultorios in the Cartagena municipality has been a rather long-winded affair due principally to the need to adapt the installations to the new post-Covid “normal”, installing screens and ensuring hygiene measures can be applied to protect both patients and medical staff. Click for list of consultorios opening soon
San Pedro del Pinatar weekly markets return to normal locations next week: Click for details
Tourism:
It's been a complicated week, with many twists and turns which were still underway late into Friday evening as the Spanish and British governments and the EU attempted to unravel the biggest problem facing Spain's plans for international tourism; the tricky topic of quarantine regulations.
On Monday the Balearic Islands opened for business, with over 10,000 German tourists arriving by a "tourism corridor" agreed by the German and Spanish governments. Click First tourists land in Spain since the beginning of the Covid crisis for the full story. The new arrivals are NOT subject to quarantine regulations and must only undergo a temperature test and fill in a passenger arrival form informing the authorities of their contact details and intended destination.
On Sunday, just hours after declaring that Spain was sticking to its guns and would NOT be opening its mainland borders to foreign tourists until July 1st, the Government did a complete U-turn and made the surprise announcement that it would be opening for foreign nationals from 21st June.
Spain closed its borders on 14th March when the state of emergency was first decreed, enforcing a strict lockdown in a bid to further prevent the spread of Covid-10.
Since then the Spanish resident population has been prohibited from moving internally between either provinces of the larger regions or between regions other than for essential purposes, flights into and out of the country fell to an absolute minimum with repatriation flights and essential movement only and those returning to Spain were subjected to a strict 14 day quarantine.
From midnight on the 21st June free movement of Spanish residents around the country will resume and borders will be re-opened for other EU member states and other nations within the Schengen Zone and the no quarantine rule will apply.
The only EU country excluded from this arrangement is Portugal. The Spanish-Portugese border is due to re-open on 1st July when a formal opening ceremony attended by the King and Prime Ministers of both countries will take place.
From 1st July borders with third countries, outside of the Schengen area, will be opened in stages, depending on epidemiological situation in the specific countries.
The UK was NOT specifically mentioned in the announcement and obviously the complicated situation exists that although the UK has technically exited the EU, current legislation applies during the transition period until the UK has concluded negotiations for its full exit on December 31st, but on Monday, a Spanish Government spokeswoman confirmed that the UK would be added to the list of countries whose citizens could travel to Spain.
But by Tuesday, this was all up in the air when Spain's foreign affairs minister Arancha González Laya, indicated that Spain may impose a reciprocal quarantine on British visitors entering Spain, saying in an interview with the BBC: "We will be checking what the UK will be doing and we will be in dialogue with the UK to see whether or not we should be introducing reciprocity as they have different measures than the rest of the EU."
She said that the situation was "fluid" and that officials would like to "properly engage in a dialogue with the UK authorities to make sure that we both take the message that best corresponds to the health situation, which today is a little bit better in Spain than it is in the UK".
So once again all those British holidaymakers who had booked flights for family visits or for holidays faced the possibility that they would have to go straight into quarantine for 2 weeks on arrival in Spain, which for many was the duration of their holiday, then go into 2 weeks quarantine upon returning to the UK.
The Foreign Office issued an update to its travel advice for Spain maintaining the advice not to travel to Spain, which effectively means that travel insurances for anyone who does so are invalidated and that EHIC cards are also invalidated as the bearer is choosing to ignore offical advice.
All week travellers waited for news and by late Friday evening, in spite of a flurry of diplomatic conversations, as Spain frantically worked against the clock to try and resolve the issue last minute, there was still no final decision made.
On Friday evening the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, stated that “the summer season will be complicated" and said that she does not expect “massive” arrivals of foreign tourists in Spain during “ the first days” after the reopening of the borders, which is hardly surprising given that negotiations on Friday afternoon were also reportedly underway with the French government as Spain wants to open its borders from midnight on Sunday 21st whereas the French are intending to open theirs at midnight on the 22nd June, and that the border with Portugal doesn´t open until July 1st.
According to Maroto, it has also still not been finally decided whether to carry out PCR swab tests on tourists arriving in Spain, as the Region of Madrid, for example, is asking for at its Barajas airport (see below), a measure that the Government is still discussing with the regional governments in spite of reassurances that there would be no Covid testing at airports.
The Minister said on Friday evening that she plans to convene the Sector Commission next week to address the reopening of borders and protocols, and to "take all measures to ensure that there are no outbreaks".
Sources from the Exterior Ministry are reported in the Spanish media to be saying that the UK Government is analysing its own quarantine measures and that the decision taken by the Spanish Government will depend on what the response is from the UK Government during the next few hours, whereas the BBC has reported this afternoon that the UK Government will not announce quarantine changes before June 29th.
The BBC reports that it has been told : “the government is planning to relax its travel quarantine in early July for some people arriving into the UK”, saying that , “the UK hopes to make an announcement on 29th June that it has secured a number of travel corridors, ” an agreement between the UK and other countries that people travelling in both directions between two countries would not have to self-isolate after they travel.
The BBC also reported that, “A senior aviation source has told the BBC that the quarantine could remain in place throughout the summer for anyone arriving from countries who do not have a travel corridor with the UK.”
The British printed media are reporting that an “imminent decision” is expected from Spain, “Spain is willing to be open to the United Kingdom, we are in talks with them about their quarantine. We are in a position to open without a quarantine,” a Spanish foreign ministry official is reported to have said.
So at this moment it is still unclear whether UK citizens will be expected to quarantine or not from Monday evening onwards, given the fact that the UK will expect anyone returning to the UK from Spain to self-isolate for 14 days on their return from Spain.
This is all particularly irritating for those wishing to travel to Spain, particularly in the light of the launch of an advertising campaign specifically designed to attract UK visitors to come here for a holiday which was presented on Thursday evening "Spain for Sure".
On Thursday morning the Prime Minister presented the Tourism Sector Promotion Plan, allocating 4,262 million euros to refloat the sector and “relaunch” the Spanish tourism sector just three days before the county opens its borders for foreign tourism, although much of the plan focused on loaning money to business in the sector at advantageous rates and has gone down like a lead balloon with indebted businesses who are not looking for loans, but subsidies.
Then on Thursday evening the King of Spain spearheaded the presentation of "Spain for Sure" in the prestigious Prado Museum in Madrid, which is meant to transmit the message that Spain is a safe destination and a "surefire decision" for those who have been to Spain before and know what to expect.
The UK is the largest market for Spanish tourism and last year sent 18 million tourists to Spain who spent an average of around 1,000 euros each, so it’s obviously important that the right message goes out to potential visitors, however, the timing of this particular wording has come in for some criticism today given the fact that nobody is sure if they can even go to Spain and under what conditions right at the moment!.
Hartos de Madrid and Madrileñofobia
On Monday the hashtag 'Hartos de Madrid' (harto means fed up, sick of something) become a trending topic on Twitter in an online row based on the strong online opinions being expressed against the anticipated movement of families from Madrid to the coastal areas of Spain, similar to that which arose prior to the imposition of the state of emergency when coastal dwellers expressed their fear that residents of the capital city would transmit the virus to their own local communities after schools closed down and thousands of families from the capital headed for the coast.
This followed the announcement that there would be freedom of movement between the autonomous regions of Spain from midnight on 21st June.
Residents of Madrid have responded to the comments by making the point that significant numbers of inhabitants from other regions move to the capital to study, work or enjoy cultural getaways, the result a real set-to on social media between Madrileneans and coastal dwellers from the rest of Spain!.
The regional president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso complained vociferously about the 'madrileñofobia' being expressed in some coastal areas of the country in which families from Madrid own second residences and feel that their arrival will not be welcomed as warmly this summer as it has been in the past, calling the fears of coastal residents “unjust”
However, the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) which carries out extensive surveys into the “mood” of the country about a variety of topics reported this week that 65.7 percent of Spaniards do not plan to go on holiday this summer at all, so the flood to the coast may not be as significant as anyone is expecting.
Madrid was particularly upset by the announcement last week that only cursory controls would be imposed on foreign tourists arriving in the country, hence the situation still in play today that the region is asking for better controls on passengers.
In addition, the Minister said that tourists may be forced to take the test in the event that they refuse, although he acknowledged that until now there has been collaboration on request.
Barajas airport is the largest transport hub in Spain and handled over 61 million passengers last year and has suggested to the Ministry of Health that tourists arriving at Madrid Barajas-Adolfo Suárez airport receive a welcome message on their mobile phone and information from the 900 102 112 telephone service, which they should call in the eventuality that they develop symptoms compatible with Covid-19, during their stay in the region.
The regional General Directorate of Public Health is also looking at the possibility of positioning information panels located in transport networks (at the airport, buses, Metro, Cercanías), to reinforce this information, the aim being to try and detect potential imported cases as rapidly as possible.
The Minister of Health for the Madrid Region, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, has sent a letter to the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, expressing concerns about the resumption of tourist flights and requesting the government take steps to control the arrival of tourists through the airport, saying "the first cases came through tourism with the mobility of people, and that mobility is the main risk factor for the transmission of respiratory diseases, such as Covid- 19 ″.
Today the discussions still continue, Madrid requesting that incoming passengers be given a PCR test, the fear being that if they disappear out into the public transport system with Covid, then this could cause a major outbreak in the capital, which is still reporting the highest number of cases in Spain and is still observing restrictions when the rest of the country leaves the state of emergency next week.
Testing for tourists at airports and testing of close contacts of tourists
On Friday the Ministry of Health confirmed that there would be three controls for foreign tourists entering the country:
-Temperature test
-Tourists will be requested to fill in a contact form
-They will then be subjected to a visual appraisal of their condition.
Mazarrón installs buoys on two of its wild beaches closest to Bolnuevo. The council is also dumping its Posidonia on the dog beach to “return it to its natural environment” Click
to read
Bus routes to Cartagena beaches and La Manga halved for this summer
The council is to spend around 28,000 euros on a tourism promotion campaign on buses in the national Alsa network
Alsa, the urban transport service concessionary for the Cartagena municipality, has announced that summer services will begin from July 1st, but will be reduced by 50% compared to the summer of 2019.
Alsa runs the routes most used by both tourists and indeed residents of the Cartagena municipality including the routes to Portús beach, the urban beach of Cala Cortina and the principal route along the length of La Manga del Mar Menor and to Cartagena City most used by holidaymakers without hire cars. Click
here for the full article
127 vigilance points for Murcian beaches this summer: This is 10 more than last summer, which will be overseen by 263 lifeguards, sanitary personnel, drivers, co-ordinators and rescue boat drivers, covering 81 beaches.
The annual Plan COPLA was approved by the Murcia regional government on Thursday, guaranteeing lifeguard and medical support in Águilas, Lorca, Mazarrón, Cartagena, La Unión, Los Alcázares, San Javier and San Pedro del Pinatar from July 1st onwards.
Economy:
Public debt reaches record high at all levels of government in Spain
Spanish public debt has risen at all levels in response to the Covid crisis ; national and regional governments, as well as local councils
Debts of public administrations in Spain overall rose by 0.9% in April when compared to March, adding 10,533 million euros more as a consequence of the Covid-19 crisis, to reach a historical high of 1,234,694 million euros (1.23 trillion euros) , almost 99% of GDP, according to data published on Thursday by the Bank of Spain. Click
for article
On Friday the ECB warned EU leaders participating in a videoconference summit that their economies were heading for a “dramatic fall” due to the coronavirus crisis. Unemployment in the 19-country euro zone could jump to 10% from its current 7.3%. Leaders were warned that the full effects of Europe’s worst recession since World War Two had yet to appear in the labour market and they were urged to reach agreement on a massive stimulus plan currently under discussion.
Spanish Government offers subsidies for purchase of new vehicles: Plan Renove:
The Spanish Government has resurrected the Plan Renove car subsidy scheme used after the economic recession to help stimulate the car manufacturing sector and has announced a 3.75 billion euro injection of financial subsidies and loans which it hopes will stimulate the purchase of new vehicles.
Spain is the
second largest car manufacturer in Europe and the 12th in the world, accounting for around 10% of GDP, 300,000 direct jobs and an estimated 2 million indirect jobs. 82% of the vehicles produced in Spain are exported to more than 100 countries and there are 17 vehicle manufacturing plants in Spain.
Manufacturing and sales of vehicles have been badly hit by the Covid crisis and the new conditions offer subsidies of between 400 and 4,000 euros on the purchase of new cars and commercial vehicles as part of a 21 point plan of aid for the sector, the idea being that the Government subsidises half and the manufacturers and dealers match that subsidy.Click
for full article
Other stories.
Post Covid Come Back for Kraser in Cartagena: Click to read
Águilas takes graffiti art to another level; with mosaics. Click to read the article
Lorca Archaeological Museum re-opens:The Museo Arqueológico Municipal de Lorca is located just around the corner from the Convento de las Mercedes Visitor Centre and car park and it’s easy to add into the mix for a daytrip out to Lorca.Click for information in English about the Archaeological Museum
Click for full information in English about places to visit in Lorca
Public libraries re-open in Torre Pacheco and Roldán. Click for article
Rio de Flores by Willy Ramos in Cartagena: 18th June to 28th September.The exhibition is in the Palacio Consistorial Click
for info
Terra Natura waterpark opens with extended hours: Pre-booking via the internet is highly recommended as capacity has been reduced in order to guarantee social distancing
On Monday the Terra Natura Murcia wildlife park opened its waterpark for the summer, opening daily from 11:00 to 20:00. Click
for information
Los Alcázares opening drive-in cinema for the summer: Click
for article
350 marijuana plants uncovered in Roldán garage plantation: Click
for articleStingray sightings off the Mazarrón and Cartagena coastlines: Click
for video
Totana volunteers on alert for fires in the Sierra Espuña: Following a wet spring abundant vegetation will rapidly dry into a volatile fire risk
A huge effort has been made during the last couple of years to clamp down on arson attacks and try to prevent the large-scale forest fires which have caused such devastation in previous years here in the Region of Murcia, and each year the regional authorities compile the Plan Infomur which puts in place preventative measures, rapid reaction teams and the resources to rapidly respond to the threat of forest fire.
One of the major elements of this is vigilance, and in Totana, volunteers from the Agrupación de Voluntarios de Protección Civil de Totana work alongside forestry agents to keep a watch over the forests of the Sierra Espuña and protect them.These volunteers will be out and about between now and September helping to protect our natural areas from scrub and forest fires.More than 80% of forest fires are caused by human negligence, the commonest cause of scrub fires being discarded cigarettes.
This week teams from the regional vigilance services have been out and about, with training underway for teams of firefighters and forestry agents, ensuring that not only can they fight fires, but are also fully competent at travelling to fires in emergency situations; and getting in and out of helicopters in a hurry in the midst of a forest fire!
Scrub fire rapidly extinguished in Jumilla. Click for article
The abundant dry vegetation has been caused by the extraordinary weather this year and is likely to keep our firefighters busy this summer:
This spring was the wettest in Murcia for 16 years
March exceeded the average value for rainfall by 687%, making it the wettest March of at least the last 80 years
It’s no wonder that hayfever sufferers have had more than just Covid-19 to cope with this spring and the fields and roadside areas are still covered with abundant vegetation and flowers.
The wet spring has been visible in many aspects of daily life ( the local shepherd has the fattest sheep seen in several years), and the weather has been noticeably wetter and warmer than normal, the official figures presented by Aemet on Friday morning, confirming what most long-term residents already know.
On Saturday the wettest spring in the last sixteen years will conclude in the region of Murcia, the average rainfall of 193 l / m2, more than double the average value for this time of year (212%) and warmer than normal, with an average temperature of 15.9 ºC, +0.8 ºC above the normal average.
This quarter has been the fifth wettest in at least the last 80 years, the second wettest in the 21st century and the wettest in the last sixteen years since 2004, a year in which an average of 214 l / m2 accumulated during the spring months.
The very humid character of this last spring was mainly due to the volume of rainfall during March, which exceeded the average value for that month by 687%, the 121 l / m2 making it the wettest March of at least the last 80 years.
April was also very humid, and with 51 l / m2 was double the average for that month.
This heavy rainfall made the two-month period of March-April the rainiest in the last 69 years. The month of May, with only 22 l / m2, was considered "dry".
Hotter and drier summer than normal expected in Spain this year
Although we’re once again in a slightly unsettled pocket of weather, during the next few days temperatures are set to increase quite noticeably to a point at which we may start to experience the so-called “tropical nights” associated with minimum night-time temperatures of more than 20 degrees.
Aemet spokesman Rubén del Campo said in his presentation that the forthcoming summer, which officially begins at 23.44 on Saturday evening, would be hotter than normal.
The Murcia region is not likely to experience the extreme heat which is heading our way next week to the same degree as other areas; it will be hotter in the neighbouring Andalucía Region, specifically the valle del Guadalquivir and cities such as Córdoba and Sevilla are likely to experience their first 40ºC temperatures of the summer.
The Murcia Region may just scrape 40ºC, but is more likely to settle in the mid thirties.
In general, meteorologists are expecting the summer to be hotter and drier than normal.
Man killed by falling slab of marble in Caravaca de la Cruz: Click to read
Bank Holidays agreed for Murcia Region in 2021. Each local council will add 2 further dates to the list for 2021:
The main change this year is that the Day of the Assumption of the Virgin, on August 15th, falls on a Sunday, but rather than moving the holiday to the following Monday as is normally the case, the holiday will be taken instead of the 9th June, the date on which the Region of Murcia officially became a region in its own right.
• Friday, January 1st, New Year
• Wednesday, January 6th, Epiphany
• Friday March 19th, San José
• Thursday, April 1st, Holy Thursday
• Friday April 2nd, Good Friday
• Saturday, May 1st, Labor Day
• Wednesday, June 9th, Day of the Region of Murcia
• Tuesday October 12th, National Holiday of Spain
• Monday, November 1st, All Saints
• Monday, December 6th, Day of the Spanish Constitution
• Wednesday December 8th, Day of the Immaculate Conception
• Saturday, December 25th, Christmas Day
Mar Menor
230,000 cubic metres less of water run-off into the Mar Menor during the last month as CHS pumping station in the Rambla del Albujón begins a normal pumping régime.
The pumping station began trials on April 30th and on May 25th started to pump water at a "normal level". There have been some technical issues in the early stages, but the CHS maintains that these have now been ironed out and the pumping station is evacuating water from the rambla, mixing it with desalinated water and returning it to the agricultural sector for use in legal, irrigated farming exploitations. Water running into the lagoon via the rambla del Albujón is one of the principal entry points for run-off water from the Campo de Cartagena and the CHS has been under considerable pressure to resume the pumping of this run-off water due to the degredation currently visible.
Special Commission for the Mar Menor formed after heated debate of the region in the Regional Assembly.
This week the regional parliament was the focal point of media attention as the annual debate of the Region of Murcia discussed the key political issues which currently face the region, including the current condition of the Mar Menor.
The Special Commission was proposed by the Ciudadanos party and aims to pull together cohesive documentation relating to all the work being carried out by the various administrations to resolve the situation in the lagoon. This is to be chaired by spokesman Juan José Molina, who says that the commission "has no political background" and "will seek consensus, compatibility of activities, and move our Mar Menor away from political confrontation," .
Good luck with that!
European Parliament gives green light to 56.7 million payout for Gota Fría damage
This week the European Parliament has approved a payment of 56.7 million euros from the European Union Solidarity Fund for Spain to assist the regions of Spain most affected by the Gota Fría which caused so much damage to the Mar Menor in September last year.
The money will be shared between the Region of Murcia, the Valencian Community and the provinces of Albacete and Almería in the Andalucía Region which were all affected.
Los Alcázares sends in diving team to search for debris in the Mar Menor
The council says it will not open beaches until it is sure that debris has been fully removed following the Gota Fría last September
Los Alcázares is one of many locations preparing for the anticipated onslaught of families from Madrid on Tuesday but for this particular municipality the preparations for this summer have been complicated by several episodes of heavy rains, during which millions of litres of water have washed down into the lagoon via the ramblas and natural waterways of the municipality, the worst in September 2019.
During this episode, which was as a direct result of a Gota Fría storm, the water level in the 70 square kilometre area of the lagoon, rose by 70cm, such was the enormous volume of water and debris carried down the waterways.
The regional government cleared an estimated 4,000 cubic metres of debris from the lagoon in the days immediately following the storm.
Los Alcázares council is concerned to make sure that it is absolutely safe for bathers to use its beaches and has decided to bring in a team of five divers to carry out an intensive search of the waters close in to the shoreline to ensure that all of the debris has been cleared away and it is safe for bathers to walk out into the shallows.
The council believes that it should not be paying for this itself, and this cleaning should have been undertaken by the national coastal department, but also believes that security is top priority and that this job needs to be done before opening the beaches of La Concha, Carrión and Manzanares.
The five man team will use specialized equipment for this task, such as underwater metal detectors, photo and video cameras, and beacon buoys in case large objects are found which require mechanical aid to extract them.
This isn´t melodrama; during the floods cars were washed down into the Mar Menor along with tons of agricultural equipment, furniture and debris and recently bathers have been reporting that large metal objects remain submerged in the water. The team has rapidly located a number of objects including a metal beer keg and kitchen knives!
The level of oxygen in the Mar Menor is falling close to post- Gota fría levels
Low oxygen levels can lead to anoxia, an episode of which killed thousands of fish last year
Ever since the Gota Fría of September 2019 in which millions of litres of fresh water and mud poured into the Mar Menor, the lagoon has been facing the inevitable chain of events which have continued to develop in the months following the floods.
Immediately following the storms there were two principal problems; the volume of debris carried down into the lagoon and the fresh water itself.
Cars, street furniture and massive quantities of other debris were washed into the Mar Menor and an intensive cleaning programme was required to remove tons of rubbish and clean up the promenades and beaches, which were stripped of sand.
But the principal problem for marine life was the change in the salinity level, as the vast quantities of non-salinated water running into the lagoon pushed the water level up by 70 centimetres in the days following the storm and changed the composition of the water, so even all these months after the disaster it is now less saline than before the storm.
The marinelife in the Mar Menor thrives because of its normal high salinity and this significant drop changed the composition of the water considerably as the scientific data has shown in the last few months, making the conditions less saline; a death knoll for marinelife which requires higher salinity in order to survive.
One of the key factors in the deterioration of the Mar Menor over recent decades has been the run-off of fertilizers into the water from the farmland of the Campo de Cartagena, which produces an increase in the amount of chlorophyll in the lagoon. In the last few months there have been worries and warnings as the figure measure rose from under 1 milligram of chlorophyll per cubic metre of water to over 3 milligrams, the transparency has risen and fallen as the silt first turned the water brown, then settled to the bottom of the lagoon, cloaking the seagrass, before finally clearing a little.
But the algal growth has increased as the waters start to warm up, the visibility has once more been reduced and recently teams have been brought in to start cleaning away tons of rotting marine biomass and algae from the beaches (this week Cartagena council has sent in extra workers due to the beginning of free movement next week, concerned about the stte of the beaches).
However, the problem of lack of oxygen has continued and in recent days has started to drop to levels which are worring the scientific team monitoring the health of the lagoon, as lack of oxygen in the water leads to anoxia and this can kill the marine life in the lagoon as it did at the end of September last year.
In September the huge volumes of sweet water which had flowed into the Mar Menor remained in a mass which failed to initially mix with saline water, and this settled in the north-westerly corner of the lagoon off the shores of san Pedro del Pinatar, leading to an episode of anoxia killing tens of thousands of fish and crustaceans which washed up on the beaches of the municipality.
It was a terrible sight, fish gasping for air on the beaches, amidst a mass of dead bodies and it took days for municipal services to clear the tons of rotting fish from the shores. Gradually the water dispersed and mixed with the saline water, and slowly the water level dropped back to its normal height, but the level of salinity has been low ever since, almost on a par with that of the Mediterranean on the other side of the la Manga strip/sleeve.
Since then, the focus has been on the threat of eutrophication and the increasing levels of algal growth in the lagoon, which were the focal point of attention during the last two weeks.
But the presence of oxygen in the lagoon has decreased in recent days, and on Thursday 11th June it fell to 4.35 milligrams per litre, a level not recorded since September 26th last year, 10 days after the Gota Fría, when the levels were 3.9 milligrams, according to official data published by the regional government this week.
Since 2017 a scientific team has overseen the monitoring of water quality in the lagoon and takes frequent readings of a number of parameters to monitor developments and changes in water quality.
The oxygen measurement on Monday showed a slight rebound to 4.35 milligrams, two less than on June 1st and three less than on May 25th, but still sufficiently low for the alarm bells to be sounding within the scientific monitoring team.
The turbidity level has dropped to 1,827 nephelometric units, compared to 2.08 on June 11th, 2.48 on June 1st or 3.8 on May 25th and the chlorophyll levels rose on Monday to 1,471 micrograms per liter.
The temperature remains at 24 degrees in June, one degree lower than in late May, and lower than the same time last year, while salinity has increased to 39.8, but far from the 44.7 observed on 11th September last year just before the Gota Fría struck.
The regional government is under significant pressure to “do something” about the continued flow of fresh/nitrate-laden water into the Mar Menor and the scientific community is divided over how the balance of the water can be maintained.
Investigating the opening of a channel by Playa Veneziola to see if this is affecting the salinity/oxygen levels
The department of environment is investigating the opening of locks on a water channel in Veneziola, at the northern of La Manga del Mar Menor,which have been opened.
It’s not clear at the moment whether this was a deliberate act by somebody who believes that opening the channels between the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean will improve the condition of the lagoon, or whether the plate on the gates has simply corroded.
The channel has been closed off for several years and is clogged with mud and debris.
There are four other golas, or channels, running between the two bodies of water through which there is an interchange of water from the Mediterranean, allowing the passage of vessels.
There have been calls from some bodies to open the golas and permit a greater flow of water, but this has been resisted by the scientific advisors who believe that the fragile ecosystem of the Mar Menor will be damaged further by this process.
Inspectors are attempting to clarify what has happened and whether this could be affecting the oxygen level in the water, although one effect which has been noticeable is that mud has been “sucked” out of the encañizadas, the area which uses the traditional fishing methods first used by the Moors several hundred years ago in this area in which nets are laid in a “snail pattern” to trap fish in areas which are shallow, by the flow of water from the Mediteeranean in through this channel.
It is believed the channel has been open for some time.
However, there is agreement that reducing the flow of fresh water into the lagoon from surrounding agricultural holdings is essential, although as has been explained many times before, this is a complex process which involves many different parties, who have yet to reach agreement on the correct course of action to take, how this can be achieved and who will pay for it.
Property
House prices fall in the regions of Spain worst affected by Covid
Analysts say this is hardly surprising and expect prices to fall further this year in the wake of the crisis
House prices in the Autonomous Communities of Spain which showed the highest incidence of coronavirus have fallen more than in other regions, according to experts analyzing current price trends in the Spanish real estate market. Click for
full article
Thank you for your support and have a good week!
:
Spanish News Today
Alicante Today
Andalucia Today
