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ARCHIVED - Outbreak in Mazarrón catastrophic says the Mayor
There is a chance that Mazarrón has generalised transmission not one specific outbreak as cases are “widely dispersed” and “uncontrolled”
The Mayor is waiting for contract tracers to give some indication of where these 19 new cases are stemming from.
The Mayor of Mazarrón explained in a press conference this lunchtime that the municipality will be waiting for the recommendations of the regional Minister of Health once it has received further clarification about the source of the 19 new cases of Covid diagnosed in the municipality within the last few hours.
The Mayor explained that the 19 positive cases are “widely dispersed”, “uncontrolled” and “without discriminaton”, affecting various age groups, and don´t appear at first glance to be linked to any particular existing outbreak, such as that in neighbouring Totana where the cases are principally amongst the Latin-American community and linked to one particular Pub.
He accepted that there is undoubtedly a high interchange of people between the Totana municipality, which now has 108 cases and Mazarrón, with residents and workers coming and going between the neighbouring municipalities.
At the moment contact tracers are working to try and establish whether there is any pattern in the behaviour of the cases which have appeared in the last few hours, and whether there is any link between them. He explained that it could be a contagious worker in a shop and all stem from one location or it could be a series of smaller outbreaks from different sources; only the work of the contact tracers can establish if there is any link.
In the meantime, the close contacts, family members and work colleagues of anyone who has been tested positive in the last few hours will be tested and quarantined in an attempt to stop the virus spreading further.
He confirmed that the fellow care workers of the staff member who tested positive last Friday and staff in the day centre for the elderly and the care home for the elderly had all tested negative, as well as their close family members; a big relief for the council.
However, he was absolutely accepting of the fact that this past weekend thousands of tourists and visitors have been into the port, used the beaches, walked along the paseo, sat in the cafés, shopped in the shops and gone to the market and attended events, the result of these “uncontrolled movements of people”could well be a significant number of new cases.
The fact that there have been so many new cases diagnosed doesn´t now depend on the movements of one or two people, the virus has gone beyond that and we could well be facing a situation of generalised transmission rather than a series of small outbreaks. This will only be known once the Ministry of Health has analysed the results of these tests and attempted to contact trace the positives.
The consequences of this could, he accepted, be “catastrophic” for the municipality which is currently in the midst of the eight most important weeks of the year “in full summer.”
Residents need to make a special effort
All of us, he said, have an “absolute responsibility” to make an extra effort to comply with the recommended measures of the regional Ministry of Health.
“The council cannot put police on every street corner” he said, we have to take responsibility for our own actions and those who are visiting us, our friends and our family:
Wear masks; at the weekend the police in Mazarrón issued 35 fines for non-wearing of masks.
Maintain social distancing, use hand gel, wash hands.
“Socialise less”, limit movements and have “less contact than normal”, otherwise the recommendations will become obligations he emphasised.
Young people, in particular, need to make a special effort.
Is Mazarrón planning any immediate measures?
This morning the council has discussed the restructuring of the weekly markets, reducing them once again down to food stalls only with strict distancing measures (Eds. Comment; the market was a nightmare yesterday, even at 8am it was too busy, people not social distancing).
They have also discussed closing parks, closing off bin areas, the film on the beach scheduled for tonight has been cancelled, cleaning and disinfections will be intensified.
Relectant to close beaches and suspend cultural activities
The Mayor is obviously aware that even though numbers are lower, there are still thousands of tourists in the municipality, not only staying in Mazarrón, the port and the urbanisations within the municipality, but also from Murcia City, weekend tourists and daytrippers. Any decisions made now will have significant effects on the local economy and local population, not just for this week, but the reminder of the summer. He explained that there is no reason to close off the beaches, and doing so will be extremely difficult and impossible to enforce given the length of the Mazarrón coastline.
At the moment, cultural activities will go ahead, with stringent preventative measures in place, and cleaning will be intensified.
The council will wait for the guidance of the regional Ministry of Health, and within the next 72 hours a clearer picture will emerge of the right course of action to take.
Info for expats
The next 72 hours will be crucial, identifying whether there is a “generalised transmission” which is bad news as it means the virus has spread across various pockets of the municipality and is already fairly widespread with lots of points of contagion, or whether it is focused in a specific outbreak.
Regardless, the advice of the Mayor about minimising the points of contact and taking extra precautions
NOW is very important. We’re all adults and we know what we should be doing.
Bear in mind, that there won’t be any risk at all of food shortages, so there is no need to panic buy; we all got through ten weeks of lockdown without starving and still managed to keep a spare roll of loo-paper in the cupboard without running out, so it is NOT advisable to all crowd into the shops at once and cause a panic.
Those who have visiting families; the beaches are perfectly safe, particularly if you choose a wider beach with lots of space (Bolnuevo beach is fab for that) and it might be sensible to avoid communal pool areas just at the moment as we don´t know where the infections are coming from. There will be visiting families who are anxious about this situation; follow the safety advice given and wait until we know what the situation is before making any decisions.
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