The Balearic government will meet today to discuss the extension of the requirement of the COVID certificate in bars and restaurants. There has been a rise of 25% more infections of coronavirus in the last 15 days.
The proposal has already been made unofficially to employers and unions who, in principle, are in agreement, as they consider that it is a way to tackle the contagions without having to adopt harsh restrictions like the full lockdown of 2020.
This year there are more infections but far fewer hospital admissions. The 14-day cumulative incidence on Friday was 392.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, up from 249.2 cases a year ago. The situation in hospitals last year was the reverse: in 2020 there were 291 people admitted, 48 of them in ICUs, while now there are 172, 34 in ICUs.
It is expected that the number of infections will increase due to the increase in social gatherings during the Christmas holidays.Therefore the Government believes stricter measure should be adopted and one of them is to extend the COVID certificate requirement to bars, which were exempted two weeks ago. The Minister of Health, Patricia Gomez, announced last week that it was not ruled out to extend the requirement to bars depending on the increase in cases.
It is assumed that the extension of the measures will affect shelters, hostels, hostels and other tourist accommodations with shared use rooms.
However, it is possible that the passport requirement may also be extended to cinemas, circuses, gyms and dance academies due to the fact that Mallorca is approaching high risk levels. In Minorca the COVID passport is already required in these areas.