81 per cent of Spain’s Costa Blanca in favour of a continued lockdown to fight Covid-19 pandemic, with a third willing to stay indoors a further six months

While 81 per cent of people living in the Valencia Community are in favour of a continued lockdown to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, more than a third would be willing to remain in confinement for a further six months to avoid more deaths.

WITH the Generalitat Valenciana warning a worst case scenario could be another 24 weeks of quarantine to combat Covid-19, 45.7 per cent of the Valencia population said they could manage another month in lockdown with 35.5 per cent saying they would be prepared to comply for another six months.

Overall, 81 per cent are in favour of a continued lockdown ‘at the moment.’

The continued high infection and mortality rates has led public authorities to contemplate extending the duration of the State of Alarm measures further.

And to determine the level of public support, the survey was carried out by a working group led by the government’s Valencian Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, Nuria Oliver. Researchers from universities across the Community were involved.

Director General of Analysis and Public Policy of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ana Berenguer, said the fact that 81 per cent of the population is willing to continue with the measures imposed “confirms the resilience of citizens in the face of exceptional circumstances to defeat the coronavirus.”

She said it “is very significant that the data on the capacity to maintain containment remains so high after almost a month of the measures being taken.”

Of those surveyed, only 2.8 per cent described the measures taken by the government as “very strict.”

The Valencian Community today recorded 263 new Covid-19 infections, bringing the total number of cases to 8,841.

Of the new positive cases, 140 are in Alicante Province, 88 in Valencia and 35 in the province of Castellon.

By province, the total number of cases is 3,133 in the province of Alicante (420 hospitalised and 121 in ICU), 4,614 in the province of Valencia (795 hospitalised and 158 in ICU), and 1,089 in Castellon (232 hospitalised, 41 in ICU).

The number of fatalities has also risen to 838 in the Community, 20 more than yesterday.

Of the total number of deaths, 331 are in the province of Alicante, 404 in Valencia and 103 in Castellon.

On the positive side, as of this afternoon there have been a total of 2,624 discharges in the Community, 335 more than yesterday’s Ministry of Health update.

Of these, 990 in Alicante – up 226 on yesterday, 1,388 in Valencia and 246 in Castellon.

And a 28,885 people across the Community have tested negative for coronavirus.