Spain: Hundreds of young people with covid after traveling to Mallorca | Controversial “macro-epidemic” after graduate study trips

Hundreds of young Spaniards have been infected with Covid-19 during year-end trips to Mallorca. Many are in quarantine, in a “macro-epidemic” of the disease surrounded by controversy in Spain, with students confined under police surveillance.

Infections detected until Monday are around 900, but it is feared that they will continue to increase in various parts of the country where they have returned after these trips to the Mediterranean island.

Those who are in preventively quarantine reach 3,000 only in the region of Madrid (center). The regional authorities of the Balearic Islands, the Mediterranean archipelago to which Mallorca belongs, have warned that one in four young people directly or indirectly linked to the epidemic test positive for the virus.

At least 249 young people have been confined to a hotel on the island to test for Covid-19, with police surveillance to ensure that they complete ten days of quarantine. In addition, they are supported by a team of psychologists from the Red Cross.

Authorities detected that the infections began during a concert, which was evicted by police for failing to comply with preventive measures such as safe distance and the use of masks, and at parties in hotels and the island boats that these young people attended. since the middle of this month.

Criticism of the new measures

In response, the government of the archipelago on Monday approved a new regulation for organized trips to the Balearic Islands. This will require all groups of more than twenty people to arrive on the islands with a negative PCR done 48 hours before or to have the full vaccination schedule. In addition, they asked for police reinforcement to prevent risky behavior in tourist areas.

The decisions of the authorities are interrogates by the parents of the young people, like the mother of one of the students who took the regional government to court for what she considers illegal detention of her son in the hotel on the island in which he was locked up with others. Other parents criticized what they saw as a lack of information about their children’s status and when they would return.

The epidemic comes after the reopening of nightlife in Spain, but with limitations. The attitude of young people who do not respect preventive measures is criticized. It should be noted that the UK has just included the Balearic Islands among the safe tourist destinations for its tourists in the context of the Covid-19.

Spain’s Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto called this “macro epidemic” an “anecdote” and argued that Spain “is a safe destination” for tourism.