Ibiza bans pool and boat parties amid rising coronavirus infection rates
The government of the Balearic Islands has introduced a number of new social distancing measures in an attempt to stop a recent coronavirus outbreak from getting out of control.
President Francina Armengol said on Tuesday that boat and pool parties will be banned in Formentera, Menorca, Mallorca and Ibiza.
According to health minister Patricia Gomez, the region’s government believes boat parties are the most likely venues for mass outbreaks to originate.
Late night bars will also have to close their doors at 1am, an hour earlier than in normal summer seasons.
Nightclubs will remain closed for the foreseeable future, Armengol said.
On Monday, Spain’s health ministry announced that 1,833 new coronavirus cases had been diagnosed in 24 hours – which was below Friday's post-lockdown record of 2,987 but more than three times the average seen in July.
Cumulative cases, which include results from antibody tests on patients who may have already recovered, rose to 359,082, with 32,389 detected in the past seven days, the ministry added.
Since lifting its strict lockdown at the end of June, Spain has struggled to contain a spiralling infection rate, despite mandatory mask-wearing enforced across the country and other restrictions.
The government's most senior coronavirus expert, Fernando Simón, said more testing was part of the reason for the surge.
"We are detecting much of what is out there. I wouldn't say 100% ... but between 60% and 70%," he told a news conference, adding that the figure was slightly below 10% during the epidemic's March-April peak.
Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque Country have all launched mass screening programmes in a bid to identify and isolate asymptomatic carriers of the virus.
While hospitals are not yet under severe pressure, Simón said some medical staff were beginning to feel the strain, particularly in Madrid, which has detected 9,430 cases in the past seven days – more than any other region.
Despite widespread fears that an influx of sun-seeking summer tourists would serve as a vector for infection, Simón said only 163 imported cases had been confirmed in the past week.
The ministry is monitoring 1,019 active clusters of the virus, defined as three or more linked cases spread across different households, up from 560 at the beginning of the month.
Coronavirus: what happened today
Click here to sign up to the latest news and information with our daily Catch-up newsletter