It has been a week in which the Balearic government effectively cancelled the Christmas holidays introducing tough new measures as the number of cases of the coronavirus reached an all time high. While you can criticise the Balearic government for their tough measures (curfew, limiting the number of people in home etcs) you can see why they have been forced to act in this way; the number of cases is alarmingly high. Action needed to be taken. The biggest worry for the local authorities is that there was a big increase in cases over the two Bank Holidays earlier this month. This got the alarm bells ringing.
The local authorities fear that a similar state of affairs could happen over the Christmas period. The Balearic government know that they have been especially hard on the bar and restaurant trade. Calling on them to close at 6p.m. on key days over the holidays is a big blow for them. It will effectively mean financial ruin for many. But to be fair to Balearic President Francina Armengol she did say that she wouldn't put public health above the economic needs of the islands. In other words people come first. I seriously do not know how the bar and restaurant trade will recover from this major blow. As I have said in this space before for many the Christmas period is when they make their money. If they don't make the money now, they never will.
Thousands of jobs are at stake. The opposition Partido Popular has said that the Balearic government have had a muddled approach to the coronavirus escalation. To be honest I don't know what the government could have done unless they had put the whole island in lockdown again because it could be argued that the number of cases at the moment does warrant radical action. As Armengol has said: Be Good this Christmas and we will all be able to celebrate Christmas together next year. Let us hope that she is right.