Coronavirus: German doctor died in Mallorca

A German doctor dies in Mallorca after testing positive for the corona virus a few days ago. Germany, Austria and Switzerland warn against traveling to the island.

• German doctor dies in Mallorca without previous illnesses.
• Austria has also issued a travel warning for Mallorca. In Switzerland, travelers returning from the island must be in quarantine.
• Due to the high coronavirus * infection rates, the Federal Foreign Office and Robert Koch Institute warn against traveling to Mallorca.
• Due to Covid-19, tourists in Mallorca and in many areas in Spain * are required to wear a mask across the board.

Update, August 20: Mallorca mourns the loss of the German private doctor Dr. Bernd Kablitz. As merkur.de * reports, the doctor practicing on his favorite island had no previous illnesses and did a lot of sports *. His colleagues from the Medical Association report that he had been tested for the coronavirus with mild symptoms and then suddenly suffered from more severe symptoms. The surgeon and digestive disease specialist leaves behind a wife and two children.

Coronavirus Mallorca: Austria issues travel warning, Swiss have to be in quarantine

Update, August 19: Austria has its travel warning on Mallorca and the other Balearic Islandsexpanded. Mainland Spain has been on the list of coronavirus risk areas since August 10 . The travel warning for Mallorca and the rest of the Balearic Islands applies from Monday, August 24th. Anyone who then travels back to Austria from one of the three islands must be tested for Covid-19 there . The Switzerland continues Mallorca from Thursday, 20 August on the quarantine list. From then on, travelers returning from the Balearic Islands will have to be quarantined at home for ten days. Unlike in Germany or Austria, a negative PCR test does not remove the quarantine requirement.

Coronavirus Mallorca: travel warning for Austrians too?

Update August 18th: According to press reports, Austria is now also advising Germany on a travel warning for Mallorca . In contrast to mainland Spain, the island has not yet been declared a risk area. The Austrian government is worried about developments in the Balearic Islands . Mallorca is sending more and more coronavirus patients to hospitals and intensive care units (UCI), even if the number of active Covid-19 cases has fallen slightly since the weekend. It currently amounts to 1,467 infected people (42 fewer than at the weekend), 133 of them in the hospital , 21 in the intensive care unit.

Coronavirus: Travel warning for Mallorca - emergency return flights for 40,000 German tourists

Update August 17th: The island government on Mallorca has decided to take stricter measures against the corona virus . Meetings with families or friends, whether tourists or locals, are now limited to ten people and the nightlife must close at 1 a.m. at the latest. Many German tourists , however, who are flown back home by their package tour operators , complain that they would rather complete their vacation on Mallorca and then possibly have themselves tested in Spain * before their return flight, as costanachrichten.com * reports. Even Germany's Minister of Health Jens Spahn admits to tourists to continue their vacation in the corona risk area Mallorca "with caution" after all.

Coronavirus travel warning for Mallorca: quarantine and tests

Update August 15: After the federal government issued a travel warning , tour operators operating on the island are offering spontaneously organized return flights for over 40,000 German tourists . The island government in turn demands that Germany, like other countries, keep the islands in operation as so-called "safe corridors". But since the Balearic Islands also exceed the limits set by the Robert Koch Institute , this will probably only happen as soon as the infections lose weight even on the favorite island of the Germans .

Update August 14: The coronavirus infection rates in Mallorca are continuing to develop into negative territory, Germany has issued a travel warning for Mallorca *, as reported by wa.de *. The travel warning includes numerous rules such as mandatory testing and quarantine * for tourists returning from Mallorca. In addition to Mallorca and the other Balearic Islands , the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Foreign Office have also declared the other Balearic Islands and mainland Spain to be risk areas.

Update August 12: The Balearic Islands have to drastically correct the number of their active Covid-19 cases upwards. 228 people are currently ill, 100 more than after the last survey. As the largest island, Mallorca has the most infections with the Sars-CoV-2 . Tourists have also been infected with the corona virus, some of them are in quarantine . The island administration reports that the increase also has to do with people who have resisted the quarantine and then infected others.

No coronavirus quarantine for Mallorca tourists: Austria and Switzerland tighten rules only for the mainland

Update August 10: Mallorca paid 90,000 euros to a hotel on the island to safely quarantine tourists who tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 or who had contact with a corona infected person . There are currently twelve tourists in Corona hotel quarantine and five locals on Mallorca .

Update August 6th: Austria orders a PCR test for tourists from Spain. The Balearic and Canary Islands are explicitly excluded.

Update August 5: Switzerland is quarantining tourists arriving from Spain. The reason for this is the increase in the number of infections. Mallorca and the Canary Islands are spared the obligation for the time being.

Update August 3rd: Mallorca looks back on its weakest tourism year in a long time. “We have hardly any reservations for the next three weeks. Currently, our greatest concern is the staff, which we can hardly keep with the current turnover, ”explains the chairman of the Mallorcan hotelier association ACH, Gabriel Llobera. The general quarantine obligation for the British and the increasingly strict rules for Germans, Swiss and Austrians cause uncertainty among tourists as to whether they can really start their trip .

Corona virus on Mallorca's beaches: Tourist falls ill in the beach hotel

Update July 31: Mallorca detects a new coronavirus outbreak in a beach hotel near the small town of Santanyí . Nine people are in quarantine after a vacationer tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 .

Update July 29: The coronavirus infections in Mallorca are rising rapidly. From Friday to Monday alone, 33 people on the holiday islands tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 , reports the Balearic Ministry of Health . So more than 150 people are sick.

Coronavirus Mallorca: Foci of infection in tourist settlements

Update July 28th: The Balearic Ministry of Health has announced that there is a new focus of infection with ten coronavirus infected people in s'Arenal de Llucmajor . All those who tested positive were in the same apartment, six of them showed no symptoms. The neighborhood is closely monitored.

Coronavirus Mallorca: The British government orders Spain tourists to quarantine for fourteen days

Update July 27: The British government announces that it will order a two-week coronavirus quarantine * for those returning from Spain. That hits the already ailing tourism hard in the 2020 season. Many Mallorcans welcome restrictions on mass tourism and demonstrate against holidaymakers who come to the island despite everything.

Update July 20: Mallorca is considering a quarantine obligation for travelers from the party zones who have already recorded Covid-19 cases. However, nothing has yet been applied for, the island government reassures worried tourists . Because at the moment it is still difficult to define exact coronavirus risk zones. If the positive tests for the Sars-CoV-2 increase, the Germans' favorite island will consider such a measure, say representatives. However, fewer new infections are currently being recorded, probably also due to the closure of the bars and discos in the party hotspots Magaluf and Ballermann . More and more regions in Spain are reacting to the increasing number of infections with tightened measures *.

Update July 16: After many tourists , especially German and English, the rules for protection against the coronavirus have broken, the saw Balearic forced to shut the big party miles Ballermann and Magaluf in Majorca largely * reported costanachrichten.com *. When the restaurants, bars and clubs open again has not been announced. The archipelago currently reports over 40 current cases of Covid-19 . Those affected are in quarantine and their environment is being tested for the Sars-CoV-2.

Mallorca: Ballermann closed after disregarding the Corona rules

First report from July 10, 2020: Palma de Mallorca - Mallorca’s tourism, at the favorite destination of Germans , is in danger or at least drastically limited . On Thursday (July 9th) the Parliament of the Balearic Islands decided to offer a maximum of 430,000 beds for tourists from now on . Tourists and tour operators are horrified to see that the capacities of hotels and holiday apartments will be reduced by over 20 percent in the coming years. And that, although the enthusiasm of Germans and other vacationers from all over the world for Spain in the past few summers knew no bounds. Mallorca was the undisputed holiday leader: last year alone, the “17th State ”in the Spanish Mediterranean 16 million holidaymakers from abroad and that with a population of just under a million. The project also has the coronavirus to do as many islanders fear in the Balearics that SARS-CoV-2 in the international holiday airlines in the summer of 2020 is entering with.

Mallorca limits tourists in the Corona year 2020: when new rules come into force

Mallorca's stated goal is to reduce the number of beds for tourists in the long term. But Mallorca lovers don't have to worry too much at the moment: licenses for hotels and holiday apartments that are already running will not be canceled, accommodation that has already been booked for 2020 and beyond will still be available when the trip begins. The fear of the coronavirus being introduced to the Balearic Islands does not change that. The reduction in the number of rooms and apartments will occur little by little, because innkeepers on the island have to fill in a key when applying for a new license or when renewing their contracts, so that neither the total number of tourists on the Spanish island nor individual ones get out of hand Places collapse under a great burden. A total of 120,000 are to be dismantled through this process over the next few years, which corresponds to over 20 percent of all accommodations on the island. 

Mallorca restricts tourists in the Corona year 2020: New distribution across the island

Mallorca would like to distribute its vacationers better over the island . That is why new licenses for rentals or hotels are now issued according to how much tourist infrastructure is already in the affected location. In the Corona year 2020 in particular , it is extremely important that large gatherings are avoided, according to those responsible. There is a complete ban on the expansion of tourism in the following places: 

• Platja de Palma : The popular city beach of Palma de Mallorca is no longer allowed to receive new tourists. 
• S'Arenal : No new accommodations can be built around the Ballermann.
• Peguera : In the favorite place of active tourists in the southwest of the island, things will be quieter in the future. 
• Santa Ponça : The bay not far from the island's capital Palma is not allowed to take in more tourists. 
• Palmanova and Magaluf : The sangria will flow less at the English party venues in the future.
• Small beach resorts: The completely overcrowded beach resorts of Cala Bona , Cala Millor , Sa Coma , S'Illot and Cales de Mallorca , which were once considered an insider tip in Spain a few decades ago, will now accept fewer holidaymakers.  

Mallorca restricts tourists in the Corona year 2020: apartments under attack

Balearic Islands: From Monday even stricter mask requirement https://t.co/GfOsLGoWkL #Coronavirus #Maskenpflicht

Mallorca is particularly bad for private individuals. Renting out apartments or rooms in Mallorca for the summer months to tourists is now prohibited. For many Spaniards, this rental is a vital source of income, especially in the expensive Balearic Islands , which have adapted much more than the mainland to the price level of the holidaymakers' countries of origin such as Germany or England . At the same time, these rentals, which are made via the Airbnb platform, for example, make it almost impossible for locals to find an apartment that they can rent permanently. This led the capital Palma to ban the portal for the urban area in 2018. However, many residents have already had to apply for social assistance because they are facing economic ruin due to the 2020 tourism season , which was canceled by Covid-19 .

But the professional Mallorcan innkeepers are not equally taken into prayer: The country air is getting thinner, especially for Mallorca’s famous “ finca ” country houses. Only very few of them are allowed to build pools and in order to rent the idyllic old houses in the actually empty inland of the island , the owner has to prove that he is also farming . In addition, the beds in holiday apartments in Mallorca will be reduced to 115,000, the rest of the 430,000 remaining will be in hotels - even though the law is supposed to be an attempt to limit mass tourism . Disgruntled landlords suspect that the hotel lobby is a major contributor to the new law. A well-known name who is campaigning for the plan is, for example, Carmen Riu, who takes in tens of thousands of tourists annually with her chain of luxury hotels across Spain. Holiday apartments, which usually accommodate far fewer vacationers in far more space, would make a significantly greater contribution to reducing mass tourism. These are also useful in times of the coronavirus risk, as, for example, accumulations at pools or buffets, which will make hotels more unsafe in 2020 than in previous years, are eliminated .

Mallorca restricts tourists in the Corona year 2020: The island's capital Palma should also be quieter.

© Andreas Drouve / dpa

Mallorca restricts tourists in the Corona year 2020: fear of new infections with Sars-Cov-2

Mallorca did not decide to tighten the law in 2020 for nothing . Environmentalists , politicians and innkeepers have been discussing the future of mass tourism on the Spanish island for many years . An important trigger is probably the corona virus . Although the Balearic Islands were much less affected than the rest of Spain , the residents are very afraid that the Sars-CoV-2 with mass tourism - including from areas very badly affected by Covid-19 such as Madrid, Catalonia and England arrives. Together with Catalonia, the holiday island has therefore also tightened the mask requirement *. A mask must be worn whenever a tourist or local is in public . Exceptions are beaches , if the safety distance of 1.5 meters is observed, and individual restaurants that have their tables far enough apart and allow their guests to take off their mouthguards . Anyone who violates the mask requirement must expect a fine. In addition, a health survey * will be carried out upon arrival at Palma Airport. 

Mallorca restricts tourists in the Corona year 2020: locals write posters against holidaymakers.

© Andreas Drouve / dpa

Mallorca restricts tourists in the Corona year 2020: What vacationers have to pay attention to

Mallorca’s new regulation and coronavirus hygiene measures in summer 2020 mainly affect the tourism industry. But tourists should also follow a few rules: 

• Vacation rentals in Mallorca should be booked through a professional tour operator instead of private portals such as Airbnb. 
• Hotel bookings in Mallorca for dates that are far in the future are not advisable. 
• Until further notice, a mask must always be worn on Mallorca in 2020 to protect against the corona virus . Otherwise, the same rules apply to holidaymakers on the island as in all of Spain *.

The Spanish island may have taken the well-known Ballermann hit as an occasion and thought: "Fuck it, Malle is only once a year". Locals and tourists alike will certainly notice the change in the law in Mallorca in 2020 . Not to mention the consequences of the coronavirus . * costanachrichten.com, wa.de and merkur.de are part of the Ippen-Digital network.

List of rubric lists: © Andreas Drouve / dpa