OLIVE PRESS
The
MALLORCA
Split on school return
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Parents divided
EXPAT parents are completely split over whether it is the right time for children to return to school, an Olive Press reader survey shows that mums and dads are unsure whether September is too soon to send pupils back to the classroom. In our online poll, we asked readers to share how they felt about schools reopening for the first time since March. Exactly half said they were happy for their children to be back with their teachers and peers while the rest wanted a vaccine before they let their sons and daughters return.
Uncertainty
How a rat gave me COVID-19 Your
expat
voice in Spain
Vol. 4 Issue 88 www.theolivepress.es September 4th - September 4th 2020
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Banks a lot
And while not all parents want to keep their little ones at home, 56% said that they did not feel their child would be safe on their return. A whopping 83% agreed that social distancing would be impossible to maintain in the classrooms and 78% thought all children should be made to wear masks at school. Ominously, just 28% of parents said it was likely that pupils would be able to complete a full school year. Spanish education officials have for weeks been debating how to get pupils safely back to school this month for in-person classes.
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Losing out GDP plunges more in Balearics than anywhere else in Spain
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THE Balearics have suffered their biggest financial drop in history. The economy plummeted by a shocking 40.5% in the second quarter of the year, revealed the island’s government. The dip in gross domestic product Collaborate with an (GDP) is the worst in expert producer on all of Spain, revealed your spoken memoirs Tourism and Labour Minister Iago NegCommission a ‘This Is ueruela. Your Life’ style tribute Compared to the same period in 2019 for a wedding, birthday it is the biggest drop or anniversary recorded in the region’s history and Celebrate someone higher than any othspecial with a unique,
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By Isha Sesay
er region of Spain. Negueruela attributed this ‘unprecedented loss’ to the Balearic’s reliance on tourism which has been ‘deeply impacted by the coronavirus crisis.’ Only the Canary Islands came near to the same drop, suffering a 36% dip. Other tourist hotspots were not as badly affected - although the figures are still disastrous, with Andalucia recording a drop of 20.7%, and Valencia 25.6%. With the de-escalation phases not commencing until May and the opening of borders not until the end of June, April and May were complete ‘write offs’ for international tourism. “The collapse of GDP is a consequence of making nothing from our most important activity, international tourism,” said Negueruela. The MinSee page 16 ister explained that all other sectors depend
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equally on this one factor, so ‘it is not surprising to have seen this serious knock on effect.’ Looking at the drop in GDP by islands, the Pitiusas, which is made up of Ibiza and Formentera, suffered the worst with a 41.7% drop. This was followed by Menorca with 41.7% and then Mallorca with 39.3%. The Balearic financial decline was also much higher than that recorded in the whole of Spain, which reported a loss of 22.1%, as well as the European Union with 14.1%. Meanwhile, a total of 73,753 people were registered as unemployed in the Balearic Islands in the month of August. This represents an alarming 90% more than in the same month last year when just 34,912 were unemployed. Crisis The crisis in tourism worsened considerably when the UK announced its two week quarantine period for returning British tourists in July. Germany, Holland and Denmark followed suit to make the situation considerably worse. Domestic tourism was thankfully steady -around the Balearics and around Spain, but this did not allay the problems the vast majority of the tourist sector suffered. Opinion Page 6