On Monday, the Balearic government announced measures it will be adopting and proposing to counter the rise in the number of coronavirus cases.
These measures include the formal adoption of ones that Salvador Illa, the national minister of health, announced on Friday, such as the restriction on smoking in open-air spaces and the 1am closing time for bars and restaurants.
There is a reminder of the obligation for shops, bars and restaurants to inform customers of their opening hours, their maximum capacities, the mandatory wearing of masks (except when eating and drinking) and social distancing. Many establishments are currently not doing this.
The government is prohibiting contact sports for the next fifteen days and has delayed the start of sports competitions until 1 October. The start was due to have been the first of September. The health minister, Patricia Gómez, said that this may be revised; "everything will depend on the evolution of the situation". There are also bans on pool parties and party boats.
Gómez added that the Balearics will be recommending that passengers arriving from 25 countries with higher incidence of coronavirus over the past fortnight should quarantine and take a test. Last week, the national ministry of health provided the Balearic government with a list of these countries. The regional health ministry calculates that between 25 and 50 passengers from these countries are arriving in the Balearics on a daily basis. Gómez didn't give any detail as to these countries, noting that the information is being updated every day and that personnel from the External Health service will be notifying passengers from these countries when they arrive in the Balearics.
This is only a recommendation, however, as it is up to the Spanish government to make the measure obligatory; the Spanish government has the powers, not the regional government.
The Balearics measures will be published in the Official Bulletin on Tuesday. They become effective once they are published.
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The Balearics have been hung out to dry by the Spanish government; sacrificed to the mantra of having no intra-national borders.
High time the government told us which countries will be on the list of those needing to quarantine on arrival. Uncertainty is going to further damage the tourist trade.
I wonder on which list Barcelona is? Which country would that be? Worse than Belarus and Russia put together, these clowns.
What about all the domestic passengers from Barcelona/Catalonia and other high infection rate areas walking in without health forms or checks? this is the real reason that cases have been imported- not from tourists!
Wow, impressive......NOT. And again they are focusing on "other countries" rather than Spanish arriving form Spanish hot sports.It all too little, too late. This government should resign so we (maybe) get people in who know how to deal with a crisis like this.
People arriving from the mainland should have faced testing and quarantine if infected, Spain has the highest number of new cases in Europe. This definitely signals the end of the tourist season.
I am laughing in despair at this. Have I got this right? They are not going to let passengers know that they are on a “recommended” quarantine list, until they arrive? This is insane!. Allowing people to come, thinking all is good but then ambushing them at the airport. And they’ll still have to pay the tourist tax. If you told this to a dead donkey it would get up and kick you!