Gandía outbreak rockets
84 cases in La Safor force beach bar shutdown
CONTACT-TRACING and testing uncovered another seven cases of Covid-19 in La Safor area of Valencia province on Tuesday, bringing the total to 84 after a massive outbreak midmonth.
At the time of going to press last week, only four cases were active in La Safor – two in Gandía and one each in Xeraco and Miramar – but before the weekend, numbers were up to 30.
Currently, seven patients are in hospital – none in intensive care – and the rest are self-isolating at home under medical supervision.
Gandía's Francesc de Borja district hospital says it is carrying out around 200 PCR (polychromase chain reaction) tests a day.
The outbreak is said to be linked to a family gathering in a bar on the beach, and the patients are mainly aged between 20 and 40.
Bars and restaurants where cases had been traced to opted to close down voluntarily, but on Saturday regional health authorities ordered all nightspots to shut until August 1. Music bars, nightclubs, pubs and cocktail bars and chiringuitos (beach bars), have to close from 22.00 onwards.
The result, however, has been for revellers to head to La Safor's second-largest town, Oliva, instead, and local authorities there have called an emergency meeting with beach bar franchise companies to discuss stringent procedures to prevent the latest Covid-19 wave from spreading to Gandía's southern neighbour.
Oliva council says that if issues arise, it may opt to shut nightspots down or reduce opening hours, even before the regional health service orders them to do so.
“Beach bar owners are the first to be concerned about complying with the rules, because otherwise, what happened in Gandía could happen here,” says Oliva's health councillor Miguel Monzonís.
Since the weekend, Oliva and Gandía local police have issued over 400 proposed fines to people not wearing masks, and Oliva has roped off its popular Font Salada, a pool fed by a natural spring with a bar on site.
Other beach towns in La Safor have upped vigilance on their coasts and in nightlife areas. And Guardamar de la Safor is now taking the temperatures of everyone who enters the beach.
Of the district's 31 towns and villages, 11 had reported cases by the date of publication. One patient had been diagnosed in each of Tavernes de la Valldigna, Daimús, Beniarjó, Bellreguard, Simat de la Valldigna, Villalonga, Barx, Miramar, and El Real de Gandia, and two in Xeraco.
Oliva has been forced to disinfect its council offices and PCR-test employees after a suspected case affecting a woman working for the town hall, although they reassured residents that the staff member is not in a public-facing role and that, so far, all results have come back negative.
As of yesterday (Thursday), Oliva had not registered a single case of Covid-19 in over two months, despite the recent tourist influx and the popularity of its chiringuitos, and the town hall has attempted to assuage the public.
“Our success in the battle against the virus depends largely upon complying with health authorities' instructions and compulsory mask-wearing,” said a spokesman.