Isha Sesay
THE Balearic Islands has recorded its highest number of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic.
Setting a new record, the Balearic Ministry of Health confirmed 228 new COVID-19 cases yesterday.
This represents an increase of almost 80% over last Tuesday when 128 cases were reported.
At the time, this was the highest number of new infections recorded since March 28 when 107 infections were confirmed and Spain was under a state of of alarm, confining all citizens to their homes.
Despite the alarming figures, the Ministry explained that the majority of all infected patients are asymptomatic and are self-isolating at home.
With the total number of confirmed cases now standing at 1,364, some 99 people are currently hospitalised.
Breaking the number of infections down by island, the majority have been confirmed in Mallorca.
Here, 93 people are hospitalised with 10 patients in intensive care.
A further 1,192 are being monitored by the Primary Care Management team at home.
Furthermore, there are 35 infected health care professionals.
It comes as Germany is set to declare the Balearic Islands a ‘risk zone’ for travel as its number of COVID-19 infections exceeded the governmental threshold.
This would mean that German visitors would need to quarantine for 14-days upon their arrival home.
The upgrade could spell disaster for the region since Germans represent its largest market for tourism.
Businesses have already felt the weight of the UK quarantine which led to more than 60% of Brits cancelling their holidays to the Balearics.
The Confederation for Business Associations yesterday predicted that one in three restaurants in Mallorca would permanently close this year due to the lack of holidaymakers on the island.
