Daily updates

Jillandsteve wrote:Strange, Its not mandatory to wear them in the Uk when walking along the street and the infection rate there is very low compared to Spain’s which now, is just about the highest in Europe

Could be dozens of reasons but I doubt you'll get an informed answer unless we happen to have some qualified virologists amongst us.
Could be a different strain.
Could be that UK is about 3 weeks behind the curve in Spain and it was only just over 3 or 4 weeks ago when cases were at a low level in Spain. (Oh, and UK cases rose by nearly 3,000 today)
Could be the targeted testing.
Could be that certain areas in Spain are pushing the average up.
Could be the high amount of elderly people who live with their families in Spain.
Could be the Spanish who have larger family groups
Could be the numbers in Spain who tend to get together a lot more in the summer and visit each other.
Could be some type of tree rat swinging from tree to tree and passing it on.
(No, I didn't mean that last one).
Why are there over 100 municipalities in the Valencia region that haven't even had one case let alone deaths?
Why have Leicester and Bolton the same, or higher, incidences as some places in Spain?
If you find out, please don't hesitate to let us know.

Nobody actually has an answer.
Its just odd that the European countries with the strictest restrictions, also have the highest infection rate.
Interesting too that Francisco Simon (chief epidemiologist in Spain) says he's also not convinced masks are that effective and that they only might help, when combined with other hygiene measures.
So the top man in Spain is not even convinced of their value.
Does question how effective any restrictions actually are....
But who knows
Everyone to their own views.

For people interested in assessing the relative risk of virus transmission from an infected person in different situations, a very recent BMJ ( British Medical Journal) has trawled a lot of evidence so far and has come up with a straightforward table of " relative risk" in different settings, with and without face coverings. The full paper available here - https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3223 it highlights that a 2 m distance should not be considered a hard and fast safeguard as many factors are involved, indoors, outdoors, crowded, non crowded, good ventilation, poor ventilation, face covering, no face covering. I have pasted the table below. Go to the full paper if you are interested in more detail.

What is the ruling for groups meeting and capacity for bars/restaurants in our area (Quesada)

The number of confirmed cases in Spain as a whole are increasing on a daily basis. We are now at the highest level since lockdown ended on 21st June and Spain was the first European country to exceed over half a million confirmed cases at the beginning of this month. This has now risen to almost 660,000. There have been over 4,500 new confirmed cases every day this week. Worryingly, the death rate has also shown a steep rise. At the end of lockdown, Spain proudly announced no new deaths but has now had nearly 400 this week alone.

In our province, there have been over a thousand cases and almost 20 deaths recorded with over 6,000 cases and 75 deaths in the Valencian community this month.

Madrid continues to be the worst hit province in Spain with over one third of cases and deaths being recorded there. Since the kids went back to school, 18 schools have been closed when children or teachers tested positive.
Hospital admissions and admittances to ICU have risen and there are now over 1300 critical cases. Again, the majority of these in Madrid and Catalonia but Andalusia and Murcia are showing significant rises.

The economy is being hit hard with many areas of Spain (not ours) being hit with local lockdowns and Madrid is facing a reversion to the measures during the state of alarm. Several municipalities in Catalonia have had travel restrictions imposed and curfews laid down. Restaurants have gone back to only 50% capacity and Madrid has also closed all its parks and children's playgrounds again.

The ERTE (Spain version of the furlough in UK) has been extended until the end of October and talks are in progress for a limited payout for another year.

Flu vaccinations will start on October 5th and those in the at risk groups, including the elderly, will be contacted this month to make an appointment. There will be no "all come at once" situation as in previous years and you will have to make an appointment instead of lining up and waiting for your name to called as before.

The number of countries advising against travel to Spain has increased and almost all Schengen countries have placed restrictions on travellers from Spain with Austria requiring a negative PCR test and a compulsory 10 day quarantine on arrival. Denmark, Estonia and Finland require quarantine and Germany a negative PCR. France has no quarantine rules but requires a negative PCR from Aragon and Catalonia with nationals travelling from those areas to have testing done on return and the Netherlands requires mandatory quarantine if you arrive from Barcelona and its neighbouring municipalities so anyone travelling anywhere should check with the embassy of that country for the latest restrictions.

Bars not selling food in our province will be allowed to reopen from Monday unless the special restrictions are extended so you may, once again, be bombarded with the dulcet tones of the local karaoke performers.

Groups are to be no more than 10 and should be those of a common family or social group. The other restrictions, such as no smoking within 2 metres and tables being 1.5 metres apart, are expected to be retained but no announcement has been made. The municipality of Benigamin, which is just outside Alicante province, has had full lockdown increased for a further 14 days. The municipality has a population of 5,800 and recorded 85 cases in one day at the beginning of the month.

The other down side is that several hospitals are reporting their services are being overwhelmed with the increase in cases and are having to delay or cancel other treatments. An emergency hospital in Madrid at the Ifema exhibition centre was closed on April 30th but they are now discussing reopening it to free up the hospitals for normal work.

Thank you always so helpful

Oh, and don't forget, supermarkets are no longer open on Sundays except for some little ones that have exemptions.

Thanks Marcliff.

Two bits of bad news :

Karaoke back - dulcet or otherwise

We only have six shopping days per week.

Quick update....announced just a short while ago.
The Madrid Community has imposed Phase 1 restrictions on 37 of its areas. There will be no movement outside health areas except for work, no leaving the house except for essential shopping or health emergencies.
Private meetings are restricted to 6 people from the same family or social group in houses.
Road traffic in these areas is forbidden except if the journey starts and ends outside the area, some of which have recorded more than 1,000 new cases every day.

The above restrictions are imposed by the government of Madrid and not the central government.

In the Valencia region, more than 200 municipalities have recorded cases in the last 3 days with 2,137 new cases reported.

In Alicante Province there have been 67 municipalities recording new cases with Alicante the highest affected with 193 more cases in the last 3 days. Denia, Orihuela and Torrevieja almost 50 in the same period with other places like Benidorm registering 20. No new cases have been recorded in Rojales.

These figures were given by the Valencian Min of Health, Ana Barcelo, this morning but she didn't comment on any further lockdown restrictions over and above those already in place.