• “If the situation worsens in the next 48/72 hours, we will consider the same procedure that we have already taken in Totana,” said Manuel Villegas

The Murcian government has given itself a period of 72 hours to decide whether to apply confinement measures similar to those established in Totana to the municipalities of Lorca and Mazarrón, as well to the city of Murcia, where there is a significant increase in cases of coronavirus all linked to nightlife.

In Lorca 16 cases have been detected in the last 3 days with another 19 in Mazarrón, while in Murcia the situations in the San Andrés neighborhood and the district of Beniaján are of concern, with about 70 new cases in total in the city during the last week.

“If the situation in those three municipalities worsens in the next 48/72 hours, we will take the same action as in Totana,” said the Minister of Health, Manuel Villegas this morning, thus considering the possibility that some more municipalities in the Region will return to phase 1 of the de-escalation .

180 infections due to nightlife

The Atalayas outbreak now has 82 positive cases, seven more than on Sunday, while in Totana there are 108. In total, there are 180 active infections related to nightlife and cases are also being detected in people over 70 years of age, which are now 20 percent of all active cases, and of the most concern, according to Villegas.

Speaking of the tracking of cases, he highlighted that the epidemiology and primary care services are monitoring 3,200 close contacts of infected people, which is equivalent to about 9 contacts for each affected person, a ratio much higher than that in many other autonomous communities.

In the region there is currently a team of 40 trackers with another 25 to be allocated in the coming days, but Villegas has pointed out that the tracking tasks are also being supplemented by primary care professionals. In Totana, for example, they are dedicated entirely to this work, and the same will happen in other municipalities if they become confined.

Currently, there are 459 active coronavirus cases in the autonomous community, of which 25 are hospitalized, two of them in intensive care.

Since March, 3,898 affected people have been counted, 2,192 of them accredited by PCR (a total of 89,667 of these tests have been performed).