THE BEST FINANCE NEWS ON PAGES 14 - 17 Issue No. 1920
21 - 27 April 2022
Holiday help FOR parents who have to work, making ar‐ rangements for their children during the long summer holidays can be a major problem, par‐ ticularly if they are in the lower pay brackets. The Ministry of Social A f f a i r s a n d S p o r t s a n‐ nounced on Monday April 18 that it will sub‐ sidise the leisure activi‐ ties of 17,710 children which will be supplied by local councils. Nineteen of those councils are in Mallorca and thanks to these subsidies, the councils will be able to offer to parents in their munici‐ palities, weekly places in holiday schools at much a lower price than usual. For single parent fam‐ ilies and those at risk of social exclusion, the price is quoted at €50 per month and for oth‐ er families the price will be €100 per month. These subsidised ac‐ tivities will take place over an average of 10 weeks covering the school holidays mainly in the summer, 96 per cent of places, although some municipalities al‐ so offer places during Easter and Christmas. It is intended that those looking after the children will be em‐ ployed locally wherever possible.
MALLORCA • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
SMILES OUT
MASK FREE: We can now recover normality and show our faces and smiles.
SPAIN officially ditched masks on Wednesday, April 20. The govern‐ ment’s new rules came into effect immediately. Masks still must be worn in three instances though by workers, visi‐ tors, customers, users and patients in some cases. Masks must be worn in health centres and establishments, homes for the elderly and on public transport. Masks must be worn in “health centres, ser‐ v i c e s a n d e s t a b l i s h‐ ments” by “workers, vis‐ itors and patients, with the exception of persons
admitted when they re‐ main in their rooms.” This includes “hospi‐ tals, health centres, blood transfusion cen‐ tres or pharmacies, mental health hospitals and other inpatient fa‐ cilities, dental clinics, surgeries of all kinds, as‐ sisted reproduction clin‐ ics and examination cen‐ tres, opticians, orthopaedic and hearing aid establishments.” The Spanish govern‐ ment maintains that masks should be worn in health establishments because they “may have a higher concentration
of vulnerable persons” and that the possibility of transmission is higher in these places. Masks will also remain mandatory in nursing homes and social health centres for workers and visitors when in shared areas. The final requirement is that masks need to be w o r n o n p u b l i c t r a n s‐ port. This includes air, rail, boats and buses and other forms of pub‐ lic transport. Masks will no longer need to be worn on p l a t f o r m s a n d a t s t a‐ tions.
FREE • GRATIS
Royal visitor TRUE to tradition, Queen Sofia returned to Mallorca for Easter and attended mass and the Maundy Thursday procession as has been her habit for many years. Although she has been a visitor to the island over the last two years, when the pandemic allowed, she had not been able to attend the Holy Week celebra‐ tions which had to be seriously curtailed. Residents and visitors to Palma also become fa‐ miliar with seeing King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and the princesses attend the Cathedral every Easter al‐ though their presence was missed in 2020 and 2021. It seems however that this break has set a prece‐ dence as this year the family did not travel to Mal‐ lorca for the Easter Holidays but instead, they re‐ mained in Madrid for much of Holy Week, visiting the Ukrainian Refugee Assistance, Reception and Referral Centre located in Pozuelo de Alarcon on Sarturday April 16. While welcoming Queen Sofia, accompanied as al‐ ways by her sister Irene who travelled from Greece to keep her company, many were disappointed that the reigning monarch and his family did not make the journey, as in the past they have always been very happy to chat with people and eat at local restaurants. It turns out however that King Felipe did make a surprise trip to Mallorca and was spotted at the Club Nautic in s’Arenal and also found time to meet with his mother, although this was a private journey and he did not accompany her to mass.