Hotel Palma Bellver, which was where the Spanish students were sent. | Miquel À. Cañellas

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The so-called Covid hotels in the Balearics can now resume their normal activity. In so doing, another chapter of the pandemic has closed.

The Balearic government established these hotels primarily to accommodate tourists who contracted coronavirus and who had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic. They have also been used for residents of the islands who could not guarantee self-isolation at home. Most recently, the Palma Bellver has temporarily accommodated Ukrainian refugees. This particular hotel attracted a good deal of attention last summer, as it was where Spanish students were sent following the mass outbreak of the virus in Arenal.

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The IB-Salut health service has spent 11.3 million euros on the hotels. There were nine in all - four in Mallorca, two in both Minorca and Ibiza and one in Formentera. A total of 4,410 people were housed in the hotels because of Covid. In Mallorca specifically, the spending was 7.4 million euros for 2,592 people.

One of the four hotels in Mallorca, the Palma Bay, was different to the Palma Bellver in that it was converted into a temporary hospital during the original phase of the pandemic. Patients with mild symptoms were accommodated in this hotel, which was co-managed for a time by Son Llàtzer Hospital.