The Ministry of Health is insisting on a total lockdown of Palma and has the back of the City Council.
A number of proposals are now on the table and the Government will decide on Monday what the next move should be, which could be anything from shutting down all non-essential activity to a perimeter lockdown of Palma.
Closing the big stores on the first two weekends in January spectacularly backfired as queues formed in supermarkets and stores the minute they reopened on Monday morning.
There was a muted start to the January sales in Palma on Thursday but shoppers probably stayed at home because it was pouring rain and very cold. Aemet says the weather will clear up next week which might mean more people will head for the capital.
"If there are queues for sales in Palma we are already worried," said Dr Javier Arranz, Spokesperson for the Autonomous Committee of Infectious Diseases. “It's not the fault of the traders, it’s how we behave when we are there.”
The Authorities continue to evaluate where any Covid-19 outbreaks occurred during the Christmas and New Year holidays and it's obvious that not everyone is following the rules.
"We have seen outbreaks where one person had 37 contacts and another with 48 contacts, so they have ignored us and had meetings of more than 6 people," admitted Dr. Javier Arranz.
The Balearic Islands has an accumulated incidence of 543 Covid-19 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days and the numbers continue to rise.
Mallorca has an accumulated incidence rate of 589, Ibiza has 372, Formentera has 272 and Minorca has 197.
The President of the Government, Francina Armengol says our social lives are to blame for the spiralling coronavirus infections in the Balearic Islands.
“We have been at risk in bars and restaurants,” she says, “and especially at gatherings in family homes where it’s important that only the nucleus of the family socialise together.”
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Sara O. Please try to ignore Mark. That's what most of us do!
Sara O. You are the exception and clearly not the rule. For the rest: as I said
@Mark: I'm a Spanish elderly lady! And normal! I just happen to be bilingual! Again please don't stereotype!
Sara O. I am glad you do give a monkeys. I was mainly referring to Spanish elderly ladies, who by defenition think they have first rigth to anything. In shops cutting the lines, walking on the street not moving one inch to pass you.... or waiting at schools, what I was referring to. A long queue of people waiting to collect their kids, with adequate distance in between them......always the old ladies that just walk up to the school gate. Maybe we normal folk are invisible to them.
@Mark: this elderly woman does "give a monkeys". I've been self isolating since last March and will continue to do so until I have been vaccinated. I see no-one, have all my shopping and other stuff delivered and only go out for a daily walk. It's excrutiatingly lonely so please don't put all us elderly women in the same sack! And why do you only mention elderly women and not elderly men as well! Quite honestly I seem to see just as many elderly men out without masks and/or not respecting distances as I do elderly women, at least where I live in Palma.
What is best is 1) to go back to the shopping rules from the initial lockdown. 1 person can go shopping, not whole families. 1 person, unless you are with an elderly or disabled or single mothers with kids. 2) Everybody needs masks on, also people so called jogging. Put a track suit on and no mask needed. 3) vaccinate 4) vaccinate 5) vaccinate 6) Stop all smoking again, everywhere. 7) Schools should make more effort to separate the people collecting their offspring. As soon as they see their kid or especially their grand child, they suddenly don´t care anymore and abondon all social distancing. It is ridiculous at times and especially elderly woman don´t give a monkeys, eventhough they are the ones that will pop their cloggs first when infected. 8) Seeing the figures as they are, leave everything as it is and only concentrate on points 3, 4 and 5.
What a load of rubbish, it’s our social lives to blame.. masks are useless lockdowns don’t work even the WHO have stated this. It’s a virus it’s not going away oh and it has 99.5% survival rate! The funicular and mental impact of further lockdowns will be more catastrophic then the virus itself