At a press conference on Friday the Minister of Health, Ana Barceló, introduced 22 special measures to limit social activities in the four localities of Guadassuar, Orihuela, Onda and Elche, in the fight against Covid 19. The measures came into effect at midnight that same day and will last for the next 14 days.
With 152 new cases confirmed by PCR in the last 14 days the cumulative incidence in Orihuela, updated on Friday, was 196.35 per 100,000 inhabitants when the situation is assessed as “worrying” by the Ministry of Health when it reaches 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Among these measures, meetings are limited to a maximum of six people in any group, family or social gathering, both in public and in private, except those people who are already living together. There are also be measures to reduce capacity.
For the moment these measures will not affect Orihuela Costa or Torremendo, which belong to the Torrevieja Health Authority.
Orihuela Councilor for Health, José Galiano, held a press conference to explain that in the last month the city has experienced an “upward trend” in the data that has seen the city go from a privileged situation in the first wave, when it was one of the municipalities in the Valencian Community with the least infections, to have an increasing cumulative incidence.
The Councillor for Emergencies, Víctor Valverde, explained that the measures revolve around capacity restrictions, which will be limited in the hotel industry, social activities and in places of worship.
The Councillor for Health produced data showing that, 41% of the outbreaks are in people aged between 15 and 44 years, with just 17% in people over 65 years of age. Almost all are of social origin.
Some of the measures to be introduced include a maximum of 25 people at outdoor funerals, 15 for indoor events; places of worship are limited to 50% capacity as are theatres and cinemas; Markets are limited to 50% of the usual traders; capacity in shopping centres is limited to 50% and customers will not be allowed to remain in common areas; catering establishments may not exceed 50% of the capacity indoors or on outdoor terraces and they must now close at 11pm with no admittance after 10pm; gaming and betting establishments will also close at 11 pm, with no access after 10 pm.
There was no let-up of cases over the weekend with the Valencian Community registering 838 new coronavirus infections confirmed by PCR and antigen tests on Saturday, 364 of which are in the province of Alicante. This was the highest Saturday total since the Generalitat started providing data for this day
Between Monday and Friday, 18.5% more cases have been detected than in the same period of the previous week.
Despite all this, the Valencian Community continues to have one of the lowest incidences of coronavirus cases in all of Spain. As of October 16, the Community registered 115.09 cases per 100,000 inhabitants reported in the last 14 days (the most reliable period of time to check the evolution of the virus), while the current average in Spain is 280.44.
