Isha Sesay
AN outbreak of coronavirus has been detected in Palma de Mallorca among a family of 15.
A total of 11 family members, all of whom lived under the same roof in the Es Rafal district, tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Ministry of Health.
One relative had been admitted to the Son Llatzer Hospital after experiencing respiratory problems, with doctors confirming the positive result hours later.
The team of COVID-19 trackers were then tasked to trace the individual’s movements, concluding that 14 family members were at risk since they lived in the same home.
Subsequent rapid response tests revealed that 10 family members had been infected, including two children.
Servei de Salut ruled that all relatives were to be isolated in hospital due to their home ‘failing to meet the sanitary conditions’ to halt contagion.
The family, originally from Pakistan, owned a locutorio in the Son Gotleu district which had partially reopened in Phase 1 of Spain’s de-escalation plan.
This has now been shut down by the Policia Nacional as trackers search for those who visited the shop and may have contracted the virus.
In response, the spokesperson for the infectious diseases committee, Javier Arranz, played down the outbreak, stating that the team of trackers had ‘not yet found any other risky contacts.’
Although admitting that the locutorio sold food and other goods to customers, Arranz stressed that the business had installed a protective screen and that payments were made through this window.
He said: “We are optimistic due to the the sanitary measures implemented in the shop.
“Only the men worked in the business as the women were in charge of household chores.”
He continued that the family were not ‘very social’ and that their life was centred around contact with their relatives.
President Armengol also dismissed the seriousness of the detection in her weekly videoconference with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez yesterday evening.
“It is not an outbreak. It is a contagion because it has occurred in the same family,” she said.
While praising the work of the tracking team to identify the infected patients, Armengol asked that civilians continue to ‘be on guard because the virus still lives among us.’
It comes as the Government of the Balearic Islands plans to bring several hundred international tourists to Mallorca in June as part of pilot test for tourism.
These visitors will be largely made of up German nationals, with Britons excluded due to the evolution of coronavirus in the UK.
