News
The people’s paper ISSUE NO. 1843
29 Oct - 4 Nov 2020
MALLORCA • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
FREE • GRATIS
UNDER CONTROL
RESIDENTS are doing all that they can to behave and respect the regulations concerning social distancing and wearing of masks while there is a rise of positive Covid19 results in the Balearics and with the largest population, Mallorca seeing a bigger rise in cases. In a statement made yesterday (the Balearic epidemiologist), Javier Arranz made it clear that he could see the number of infections grow over the coming weeks. The State of Alarm has seen the government try to protect people by implementing a curfew across the Islands and this hopefully will go some way to stopping late night interaction between young people in particular. Already Manacor is in a form of lockdown with restriction of movement wherever possible dur ing the day and evening for an initial 15 days and if this doesn’t work, there may have to be stricter rules imposed. At the end of the day, it is perfectly possible to be a carrier of coronavirus without initially dis ONE of the less remarked upon results of the coronavirus pan demic is the fact that all over Spain, the incidence of criminal activity has increased, but fear not the police are here to help. Mallorca has not escaped this problem and has been try ing to eradicate as many gangs as possible with some success against organised pickpockets back in August and the success ful closing of marihuana planta tions. Regular meetings have to be held between councils and offi cers in order to consider whether professional gangs are involved in many of the in creasing breakins or as ap pears to be the case, many are simply amateurish attempts to try for a quick smash and grab. There is little doubt that with many people unable to work, some will have turned to a
Javier Arranz.
FULL PROTECTION
CRIME ACTIVITY: Has increased during the pandemic. shortlived life of crime, but many are badly planned and undertaken on the spur of the moment. Whilst on the mainland, theft of quality cars is becom
ing increasingly prevalent with sophisticated crooks using computer technology to hack into automatic lock mecha nisms on an island, it is much more difficult to hide and sell
on expensive vehicles. This doesn’t mean that bore dom or sheer bloody minded ness hasn’t led to an increase in hooliganism with the damage done to cars but whilst ex tremely annoying, most dam age will be covered by insur ance. According to the National Police, those who live in more remote communities (and those with second homes on the island) have taken note of the rise on crime and are in stalling burglar alarms and oth er security systems not only to deter burglary, but to keep squatters at bay. A simple burglary is not to be invited but it is over and done
playing any symptoms and this is why the popula tion is so vulnerable if people flout the rules as they stand. “We have to manage to get the infections un der control. The point now is that everyone re stricts their mobility and contacts,” said Arranz, inferring that instead of meeting friends or family earlier than usual for dinner in local restaurants due to curfew, it would be better not to go out at all. This concept would not find favour with those in the hospitality industry who had quickly lob bied the Balearic Government to change the starting time of the curfew from 11pm to mid night in order for them not to lose even more business. Arranz made it clear that the fact was, if infec tion continued to rise at the present levels and didn’t plateau then he could not rule out the in troduction of more selective local lockdowns, even in parts of Palma to protect the local com munity.
with quite quickly whilst the ar rival of squatters can be an ex pensive and timeconsuming process if you want to restore your property. There generally isn’t a cul ture of fear because of a growth in violence (which is
not the case) but as people be come desperate, so they are for example, throwing paving stones at shop windows to try to get away with something to sell, so the curfew will hopeful ly make it just a little more dif ficult.