On December 14, coronavirus infections marked a turning point in the Balearic Islands.
The community went from being the second in the tail in incidence on December 3, with 201 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days, to leading the increase in infections throughout the country 11 days later with 280 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Since then it has not abandoned the first position and has not managed to get below 300 new daily cases.
Most new infections accumulate on the island of Mallorca, which on Monday had a cumulative incidence rate of 621 cases per 100,000 inhabitants at 14 days, according to data from the Balearic Epidemiology Service.
Formentera follows closely, with an incidence of 586 cases, while Ibiza and Menorca register a score of new daily positives and are at more favorable rates.
The seriousness of the situation in the largest of the Balearic Islands has led the regional government to tighten, once again, the restriction measures since Tuesday and undertake a crusade to avoid the crowds that occurred in shopping centers for pre-Christmas purchases or the concentrations of people on the terraces, favored by pleasant temperatures.
From this Tuesday the exteriors of the bars and restaurants will have to close at 6:00 p.m. without the possibility of providing indoor service, the shops advance their closure at 8:00 p.m. and even the Christmas lights of the municipalities will turn off at that time with the aim of that the activity in the streets is suspended from that time.
"The intention is that from eight o'clock in the afternoon there will be no commercial activity and that there will be minimal interaction in the street," says the spokeswoman for the Balearic Government, Pilar Costa.
To guarantee this, the opening of shopping centers on weekends and holidays has also been canceled, which aims to avoid the flood of public during the most important days of Christmas.
For the president of the Government of the islands, Francina Armengol, the scenario "is serious and worrying" and she attributes the worsening of the situation to the arrival of the cold and the social relaxation derived from the generalized fatigue of the population.
"The weather was very good in November, but it has been combined with social relaxation and fatigue and that is why the infection situation is what it is," he said on Cadena SER on Monday.
These are the same arguments offered in recent weeks by the spokesman for the autonomous committee for infectious diseases, Javier Arranz, who also believes that the mobility of the Constitution bridge had a bad effect on the evolution of the pandemic on the islands, despite that free PCR tests were offered to the Balearic Islands who returned to the archipelago to spend those holidays.
The figures still do not reflect the consequences of the Christmas Eve celebrations, when Mallorca maintained the harshest conditions in the entire State with meetings of up to six people from a maximum of two coexistence units and the curfew set at 10 p.m. to avoid dinners crowds and displacements.
Restrictions that will also be extended to New Year's Eve and Three Kings, but which were more flexible in Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, where the proposal of the central government of up to 10 people and the curfew at 1.30 in the morning was applied.
One of the towns most affected by the new infections is Palma, which, with an incidence of 700 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days, has triggered the healthcare pressure in hospitals, especially in the Son Espases reference center.
This Monday, the management of the center informed the staff board of the temporary cancellation of all vacations and permits, as well as the suspension of non-urgent surgical activity, a measure that will be extended to other centers depending on the evolution of the pandemic.
“I had to go back on vacation today because I had to replace a colleague who has been infected.
We have had to expand the beds for critics a lot ”, describes the internist Albert Pou, who since yesterday has returned to work in the hospital's coronavirus plant.
In addition to elderly residence users, Pou speaks of an increase in the income of patients who are in their forties and who are in serious condition.
“We are scared by what has gone out of control these days, patients diagnosed a week or 10 days ago were admitted.
In the future ... we don't want to think about it ”, he laments.
The nurse and UGT delegate at the health center, Marian Bermúdez, explains that volunteers have been asked to double shift and cover other people and the response has been enormous, “but it is not enough because there are 188 professionals confined at home without being able to work because they are infected or under surveillance ”.
This Monday Son Espases had 92 patients with coronavirus in the plant - 37% of the beds of hospitalized covid patients - and 34 patients in the intensive care units - 33% of their capacity - who spend an average of six and a half days on the floor and 16 in the ICU.
The center's management has reorganized the services and opened a new module with 14 more beds to accommodate the increase in patients.
For Josep Pomar, manager of the referral hospital, the center has "more than enough capacity" to receive these patients, but the problem is having the specialized human resources to care for the beds of these patients.
The lack of nurses specialized in intensive care is one of the great problems, because the job boards are completely exhausted and this year no professionals have arrived from the Peninsula.
“The bed alone does not work, we are trying to move people who have already been in the ICU to exchange them with people who have not.
They are trying to do a bit of Tetris to make it work ”, Bermúdez emphasizes.
The Government of the Balearic Islands has rented the Meliá Palma Bay hotel, which during the first wave was medicalized to accommodate mild coronavirus patients who came from the Son Llàtzer hospital, the other major health center in the capital.
Authorities and professionals call these days for collective responsibility to prevent the situation from going even worse in the second or third week of January, when the effects of New Year's Eve and social gatherings are already noticeable.
"It is not a normal year to celebrate Christmas, with a hug we can harm the people we love.
This is the time to save lives ”, President Armengol repeats like a mantra almost daily.
Information about the coronavirus
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- Guide to action against the disease