Costa del Sol’s Malaga and Granada Held Back in Phase 1 Whilst the Rest of Andalucia Set to Enter Phase 2 of the De-Escalation Plan on Monday

THE Ministry of Health has not authorised Costa del Sol’s Malaga or Granada to move onto Phase 2 of the de-escalation plan, as was hoped by the Junta de Andalucia, instead they must remain in Phase 1 for an additional week.

Cadiz, Huelva, Almeria, Jaen, Sevilla and Cordoba will all move onto Phase 2 of the de-escalation plan this next Monday, May 25.

The Junta de Andalucia did propose for all Andalucian provinces to enter at the same time, however, the central government has rejected this notion and maintained that the two provinces must remain in Phase 1 for another week.

In a sense, the same issue that occurred two weeks ago has been repeated once again. Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Health allowed these same six provinces to enter Phase 1 whilst forcing Malaga and Granada to remain in Phase 0, despite the fact that the Andalucian government had requested all provinces to enter Phase 1.

Salvador Illa, the Minister of Health, along with the Minister of Finance, Maria Jesus Montero have both announced that Malaga and Granada will be forced to remain in Phase 1 for another week.

The Junta had requested for the entire autonomous community to enter Phase 2 together on Monday, despite the fact that Malaga and Granada have only been in Phase 1 for less than a week.

The Junta had also requested for there to be free mobility between provinces in this new stage of transition, as this measure could foment tourism and help reactivate the economies of many struggling businesses.

On Thursday, Jesus Aguirre, the Minister of Health and Families, defended that all eight of Andalucia’s provinces meet the criteria required by the government in health matters to move to Phase II from Monday.

Amongst this criterion is the ability for healthcare centres to facilitate and accommodate another outbreak of the coronavirus, the cumulative incidence rate and finally the ability to track suspected coronavirus cases.

Regarding the state of Andalucia and its evolution with the coronavirus crisis in general,  autonomous community has had 234 cases of Covid-19 confirmed by PCR in the last 14 days – six more than on Wednesday – with the province of Jaén at the head of new cases, with 48, followed by Malaga and Sevilla, with 42; Granada, Almería and Cádiz – all with 21; Córdoba, with 17, and Huelva, with three.

However, this Thursday, Malaga and Granada were the provinces with the most hospitalisations, whilst Córdoba was the province with the most ICU patients. According to the latest data, Malaga registered the most hospitalised patients – 56, with six in the ICU, followed by Granada – 42, with seven in the ICU, Jaén – 33, with nine in the ICU, Sevilla — 31, with eight in the ICU, Córdoba – 24, with 10 in the ICU, Cádiz – 23, with eight in the ICU, Almería – 13, with one in the ICU and Huelva – four with three in the ICU.

In terms of deaths, there have been 1,375 deaths registered in Andalucia during the pandemic – four more in the last 24 hours – a figure which was still led by Malaga, with 281 deaths, followed by Granada, with 280, Sevilla with 279, Jaén with 177, Cádiz with 147, Córdoba with 110, Almería with 52 and Huelva with 48.

On the brighter side, Andalucia continues to register the third lowest rate amongst all autonomous communities, with first place going to Melilla, with 2.31 cases, and the Canary Islands, with 3.34 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks.