Palma Shopping Centre. | Teresa Ayuga

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The Government will approve "minimal changes" to the existing coronavirus restrictions on Friday to curb the spread of the disease and keep the incidence rate low in the coming months.

The President of the Balearic Government, Francina Armengol has said there will be hardly any changes to the Covid measures in the first two weeks of March and she has the support of CAEB, PIMEM and the CCOO and UGT Unions.

The common goal is to save the summer season and President Armengol has urged residents to make an effort. She also apologised to the public for the mistakes made in the management of the pandemic.

Big stores are extremely unhappy that only slight changes are being made to the restrictions.

From March 2, maximum capacity for the entire Sector will increase from 30% to 50% but closing time remains unchanged at 20:00.

Big shops and shopping malls won't be allowed to open at the weekends, which has caused huge disappointment in the Sector.

They had asked to be able to open on Saturdays with a maximum capacity of 30%, saying it would benefit customers who are unable to shop during the week.

But President Armengol refused to budge, saying the decision was made to avoid congestion on Saturdays, which is the busiest day of the week. She also urged the public to leave shops if there are a lot of people.

Shopping malls reopened on February 15 after a five week closure and they fully expected the measures to be relaxed a little more on March 2.

The goal is to reach summer with a cumulative incidence rate of less than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 7 days, which is the indicator set by the European Union to allow mobility between countries.

As of yesterday, the IA7 in Mallorca was 34.49 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and 36.71 in the Balearic Islands.

UGT General Secretary, Alejandro Texías has made it clear he is in favour of closing restaurant interiors during the Easter break and CAEB President, Carmen Planas is demanding aid from all Administrations to give companies a strong start the season.