Isha Sesay
THE Government of the Balearic Islands has asked that the lockdown restrictions are relaxed in the region due to a steady decrease in coronavirus cases.
Dr Javier Arranz, who leads the Government’s advisory committee on COVID-19, has proposed that the Balearic Islands acts as a ‘test laboratory’ for lifting the confinement constraints.
In this way, he believes the rest of Spain would be able to observe how the virus evolves when measures laid down in the state of alarm decree are reversed.
He said: “The Balearic Islands are in a better position to act as a laboratory.
“It would be a good opportunity to start lifting the lockdown so that the rest of the country can see how it works and what the results would be.”
Expressing his optimism regarding the number of coronavirus cases in the region, Arranz said the islands are now seeing a downward trend in infections and fatalities.
On Sunday, just 22 new cases were confirmed, and on Saturday, only 16 people were diagnosed with the virus, bringing the total number of cases to 1,293.
In another good sign, the number of ‘cured’ patients almost doubled over the weekend.
“We have already passed the peak and are now in a period of slow descent.”
However, Arranz stressed that the final decision would be made by Pedro Sanchez’s central government, and that he was simply offering his expert opinion on the lockdown.
It comes as the Fundacio Impulsa predicted that the tourism sector in the Balearic Islands would take a 1.8 billion hit between March and May, with more than 400,000 people being laid off.
Economists at the Economic and Social Council (CES) also forecasted that the region would be likely to suffer the biggest recession in its history if tourism continued to be paralysed by the nationwide lockdown.
