Covid-19 Patient in Spain’s Ceuta Skips Quarantine To Go To a Party and Puts Another 80 People Under Isolation

Alarms have gone off in Spain’s Ceuta as the autonomous community risks receding back from Phase 2 to Phase 0 after a series of events has caused a spike in Covid-19 cases. A young man in the province skipped quarantine to go to a party and has ended up putting 80 people in isolation.

IN only two days, Ceuta has recorded 16 positive cases of coronavirus, on nine on Wednesday and seven on Thursday. This figure is double the number of previous active cases. One of the causes behind this spike has been the irresponsibility of a young man who left his home whilst quarantined, despite having tested positive for coronavirus, to go to a party.

For now, this one irresponsible act has infected another two people, whilst an additional 80 are currently in isolated. This has not gone unnoticed within the community.

The Ceuta Health Minister, Javier Guerrero, was outraged not only due to the congregation of people at the party but because in another family reunion (a birthday) several people who were positive also met up to celebrate. However, no cases have required hospitalisation.

The counsellor alluded to the conversation that he had held with the head of the Health Ministry to express the anger of both the minister and his own, reflecting that “meetings of 15 people are allowed in Phase 2 but not parties of 15 or 17.” He appealed at all times to the responsibility of the citizenry, putting a greater focus on the periphery of the city rather than solely focusing on the centre, as this has been the enclave with an abundance of cases in recent days.

In response to these recent events, Guerrero has announced two new measures: one is a request to the Government Delegation to have a greater police presence in the streets, in some way, this is similar to the presence experienced in lower phases and, two, the use of municipal legal services to begin denouncing non-compliant individuals, qualifying them as acts of attacks on public health.

The Minister of Health of Ceuta said that not only would they be prohibited from advancing to Phase 3, but that they could go all the way back to Phase 0. Today, during an appearance both Salvador Illa and Fernando have indicated which areas changed phases, but they have been somewhat more understanding about the situation at hand.

Illa has said that if between today and next Wednesday, June 3, the evolution in Ceuta remain stable, then they could request to stay in this phase or pass on Phase 3, however, there was no mention of a return to Phase 0. On another hand, Fernando Simon assured that all cases were currently under control.