According to Spanish government criteria for greater relaxation of confinement measures, Minorca is well positioned to meet these. There is, for example, the wherewithal to double intensive care unit capacity in the event of a new outbreak of coronavirus.
The incidence of coronavirus on the island has been low - on Saturday, the total number of cases was 109, of which 14 were active. Claudio Triay of the Simebal medical union believes that the effects would have been far less if, as had been called for, the airport had been closed a week before it was. The majority of the cases in Minorca have been "imported", especially the most serious cases.
The data for the evolution of the virus on the island indicate that the number of patients in ICU has not increased for three weeks, while the number of seriously ill patients has been stable since 12 April. These figures point to the effect of viral load, meaning the exposure that patients have had to the virus and how it affects the severity of their symptoms.
Dr. Triay says that at the beginning of the outbreak, the most serious cases were people over the age of sixty who had been away, such as in Barcelona and Madrid, and had returned to the island. He also points to the case of an Imserso senior citizen tourist who has been in ICU for six weeks.
In recent weeks, he explains, the new cases of the virus have not been overly serious. This lends weight to the view that infections now occurring in Minorca are the result of less exposure to the virus. There has been less viral load, meaning that new cases do not present the same level of health complications as patients in the early days of the outbreak on the island.
As to the possibility of reopening the airport, Dr. Triay insists that this will require testing everyone who arrives. "It's not enough to give them a questionnaire", which is what has been happening until now.