Despite the rise in coronavirus incidence, the Balearic government is not currently considering the reintroduction of measures to limit capacities or mobility. Preventive health interventions specific to affected areas are, however, not being ruled out. In Mallorca, outbreaks have been localised. Minorca is of greater concern because there is more general transmission.
President Armengol points to this rising incidence mainly being among young people, but it is not leading to hospitals being overstretched. Further relaxation of restrictive measures is not being contemplated for now. Armengol says that the situation in hospitals is "very well controlled" and that tourism can continue safely.
Restrictive measures, she explains, have been adopted when the health service has been overloaded. This is "the most important thing of all". The cumulative incidence has to be considered alongside the situation with the health service. The hospitals in the Balearics are not being stretched, and the Balearics are the "safest" of destinations in the Mediterranean.
The numbers of Covid patients on hospital wards and in intensive care units have increased, but they are not concerning. "We are balancing economic activity and a more normal life. Although there is higher incidence, the health service is not being hampered."
With 16 to 29-year-olds now being vaccinated, the president adds that "vaccination gives us the security of making life as easy as possible". Controls are working, "but we have to keep vaccinating". She is also aware of public fatigue. "We are very conscious of the anxiety and stress of the past fifteen months. We have overcome the most difficult part."
Controls, she accepts, are not infallible, as has been shown with the outbreaks among Spanish students. But young people should not be "criminalised", the government highlighting the numbers who abide by the rules.
Regarding the quarantining of students, Armengol says that the agencies which organised the trips arranged different activities where people gathered and met. The students were unable to explain who they had been around, who they had seen and for how long. The rule was therefore established that they were all contacts.
A court decided that close contacts had not been proven, and so the government was ordered to allow students who weren't positive to leave the 'Covid hotel'. But some have since tested positive on their return to the mainland, while there were others who returned positive results immediately prior to what would have been their departure.
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