Mallorca has already met 7 of the 8 risk indicators required by the Ministry of Health in order to lower the coronavirus restrictions in the Balearic Islands.
But it hasn’t met the most important one because ICU occupancy is at 36.41% and anything above 25%t is considered extreme risk.
Marga Frontera, who advises the Government on the de-escalation process, recognises that the other indicators are moving in the right direction, except the Intensive Care Units, but says facilitating mobility would result in more infections that the ICUs are not prepared for.
"The rise in infections is very fast, but the decline is very slow," explains Frontera, who believes that the de-escalation process should be done little by little so that the ICU is not overwhelmed and patients already hospitalised don’t overlap with new admissions.
Taking into account the cumulative incidence rate at 7 and 14 days, both in the general population and those over 65 years of age, Mallorca is medium-high risk, with a tendency to decrease. Covid bed occupation is at medium risk level.
Origins
The Government puts the degree of knowledge of the origin of coronavirus infections at 59.66%, putting the Balearic Islands at medium risk, but the Ministry of Health disagrees, putting traceability at 13.7%.
Based on these indicators and without taking into account ICU occupation, Mallorca would be in level 3 with a trend towards level 2. That would mean that the curfew would begin at midnight, six people would be allowed to meet inside and ten outside, the inside areas of bars and restaurants could open with limited occupation, depending on the ventilation level as could gyms and shops could stay open until 22:00 with 50% capacity.
Border alerts are also making the Balearic Government cautious about de-escalation.
Infections soared in the UK because of the highly contagious so-called British variant, despite the fact that tough restrictions, similar to Mallorca, were in place at the time.
From Monday new restrictions will be in place in the UK and anyone arriving from a risk country will have to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.