This week the Costa Blanca People spoke to Jose Galiano, Health Councillor for Orihuela in an exclusive interview to discuss the current coronavirus situation in the municipality and the government teams short-term plans.
The key concern for the local business community is that the local municipalities might follow Murcia’s suit and close bars and restaurants completely, which in the lead up to Christmas and New Year would be disastrous for the industry. However, the Councillor assures the local business community that, this is NOT in the pipeline and in fact this is the step that, more than any other, they want to avoid.
Señor Galiano said: “Right now we have no plans to close the bars and restaurants in Orihuela Costa, we are all committed to taking measures that have the least detrimental effect on our businesses. At the moment in comparison to neighbouring municipalities we have a good epidemiological situation here.
“Of course everything depends of the evolution of cases, but at the moment the incidence rates are acceptable. Should we have a significant increase in cases and the occupation of hospital beds and ICU beds become unmanageable, then we will have no choice but to take additional and necessary measures.”
The figures are issued by the regional health department of the Valencian Community and local municipalities are not given free access to local breakdowns. In particular, there is no official distinction between Orihuela and Orihuela Costa, however, the Coast and Torremendo have escaped some of the more stringent measures because they come under Torrevieja Hospital and health service, rather than Vega Baja Hospital. It has been the Vega Baja area that has been particularly hard hit over the last two weeks with areas such as Almoradí recording more than 470 cases per one hundred thousand people.
The Councillor said: “The total cumulative incidence to 25 October is 574,83 for the municipality of Orihuela including Orihuela Costa. These figures have improved over the last week, but we have to wait 14 days from this date to know the new numbers and see the improvements.
“The improving data encourages the Town Hall to continue with the current measures and increase the good results. The waste water is being analysed across the whole municipality and the data has show an improvement in the last test.”