They say that a year is a long time in anything, so how are we going to measure this one? I remember our Head of HR speaking to us in the office at Pirates on Friday March 13th, yes it was Friday the 13th! She said you need to go home and don’t come back to the office until I say. I think we all thought at the time it would be a couple weeks or a month at max. Here we are a full year later, still waiting for that phone call.
So what has happened in a year? Well here are the numbers;
Balearic Islands Population: 1,149,460
Positive Cases: 56,777
Recovered: 54,986
Deaths: 757
% of deaths against Balearic population: 0.06%
% of Mallorca population fully vaccinated: 3.21%
Figures taken from the IB Salut and Caib websites.
I think we all know the way forward back to some sort of normality is the vaccine. Whilst our rate of vaccinations has been poor at best, it wasn’t helped this week with the so called problems with Astra Zeneca. Spain was one of the countries that halted their programme despite The World Health Organization, Europe’s drug regulator and the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis saying that they should carry on.
A statement from Astra Zeneca said, “More than 17 million people in the European Union and the U.K. have received a dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, with fewer than 40 cases of blood clots reported as of last week.
The pharmaceutical giant said that across the EU and U.K. there had been 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among those vaccinated.
This is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed COVID-19 vaccines.
The European Medicines Agency has also said that the data available so far showed that the number of blood clots in vaccinated people is no higher than that seen among the general population.
There was talk this week that Italy, France and Germany used it as a political move brought about by a Brexit sulk. Seriously? So they’re prepared to put their own people and economies at risk because they are sulking? It’s totally ridiculous and shows what a complete mess the EU have made of their vaccine rollout.
Good Morning Britain’s Dr Hilary Jones insisted that Germany and France would be costing lives by banning the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. While speaking to host Susanna Reid, Dr Hilary argued there was no evidence to suggest this vaccine caused blood clots. He listed a wide list of groups that had found no evidence of any link between the vaccine and the blood clot. The physician took particular issue with the decision as he insisted the “vaccine actually protects from blood clots.”
The question I would ask is, Why stop it? Why can’t we be given the chance to make our own decision? I said this before about the virus itself. Given the choice of what has happened over the year, I would prefer to be given the chance to work and take the risk as the numbers just don’t add up for me. Slowly but surely they have admitted their mistake and are restarting their programmes. It’s ironic or maybe moronic that those three countries are seeing an increase in infections again. Apparently we will restart the vaccinations here next Wednesday having totally wasted 10 days.
Our numbers are without doubt dropping, which is good, but as the Uk are proving the vaccine makes a massive difference. What is a little worrying is the push for Easter opening via Germany. It means the Germans can come as long as they have a negative PCR test but the Spanish are not able to travel into parts of their own country. You might think that is all ok but I’ve had several UK people tell me that they’ve been through customs without having to show their negative test. I do hope this doesn’t come back to bite us on the you know where! I’ve said this before too, why risk 5 days of Easter for 5 months of Summer? The jury is out.
All the while, countries like Turkey, Greece and Croatia are quietly going about their business and are looking to open at the beginning of May.
Speaking to travel people I know, bookings remain solid, predominantly from August and favouring the Eastern Med. Bookings for Mallorca remain low and although there is an increase that’s because they’re starting from such a low base. But there is an appetite to extend the season beyond the end of October.
This is all a balancing act, so let’s hope it all goes well without a hitch. April 12th is the key date in the Uk, when the Global Travel Task Force reports back on the practicalities of restarting International travel.
We had a meeting at Calvia Town Hall this week with the Deputy Mayor and the Director General of Tourism. It was very positive and they share the same sentiments as some of the things written above like the season will be stronger from June and there could well be an extension to the season.
Things are more positive and we should be too.
Take care everyone and enjoy your Weekend!
Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!
Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com
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