Murcia Today weekly bulletin 8th May 2020

This week the Covid crisis has continued to dictate the course of the news in both Spain and Murcia, the principal themes of the week being first the political battle to extend the state of emergency by a further two weeks, followed by the preparations to enter phase 1 de-escalation on Monday and all that this implies.

After eight weeks of lockdown the prospect of a cool beer in a beach-side bar following a healthy walk is an attractive prospect, as is the thought of being able to purchase fresh local produce from a street market once again, but at the risk of being a "party pooper" just remember that as of today there are still more than 65,000 active cases of Covid-19 across Spain and it's highly advisable to maintain social distancing and take particular care to disinfect anything that comes into contact with external surfaces when out and about.

There is still a huge amount of uncertainty about how the de-escalation will progress, with frustrating daily changes to information; even this afternoon our regional health minister has been publicly corrected by the national ministry about the topic of mobility and whether we can move between municipalities within the region or not from Monday. (Yesterday he said that we couldn´t but apparently we can).However, even he has said more details will be published tomorrow, so there will still be changes to follow!

The daily figures 

Spain

A week ago on Friday 1st May the Spanish Health Ministry reported a total of 215,216 cases, with 24,824 deaths.

A week later the figure is 222,857 cases (confirmed by PCR testing), so a rise of 7,641 new cases and 26,299 deaths ( a rise of 1475 this week, but considerably less than the 2300 of last week).Click for Murcia and Spanish figures Friday 8th May

The number of recovered patients has now risen to 131,148, leaving just over 65,000 active cases across Spain. 97% of these cases are considered to be showing "mild" symptoms and 3% are considered serious or critical. (NB. The figure of recovered patients becomes 168,408 if the rapid tester results are included. These only test for antibodies in the blood and are generally used to test patients who telephonically reported mild sysmptoms and have since made a full recovery).

The number of active cases, new cases and fatalities are all showing a marked downward curve this week, the only anomaly being in the figures compiled on Thursday night which showed an increase in new cases following  a week of falling figures.

The majority were in just two areas of the country; Cataluña with 543 new cases and Madrid with 148. Castilla y León added 91 to its total and the Basque country identified 60 new cases. This has obviously sparked some concern that there may be a resurgence of new cases as the public becomes more complacent about social distancing during exercising, although the health ministry stated today that this shows the evolution of the virus is varying considerably from one area of the country to another.

However, on Wednesday concerns were raised about the increase in the number of children showing symptoms since the de-escalation phase zero began and children were permitted to exercise for one hour daily, or accompany a parent during essential tasks.

The Health Ministry makes detailed information available daily, and provides data by age group and sex as well as location and the figures do show that the number of cases in the two age groups covering young people aged 0 to 9 and 10 to 19 have increased in these age groups more than in any other group in the last two weeks. On average, new cases of which the age is known increased by 21.8% between April 26th and May 12th, but this increase was 35.3% in children under 10 and 40.9% in those aged 10 to 19.None of the other age bands for which data is provided showed such a large increase.

This same pattern is repeated in hospital admissions and intensive care units. There are obviously concerns that the number of cases in all age groups will rise following the initiation of the de-escalation process, and the public is being continuously urged by politicians at all levels to exercise caution when leaving their homes.

Region of Murcia

Murcia remains at the bottom of the league table for mainland Spain with the lowest number of confirmed cases, the lowest number of deaths, the lowest percentage increase in the number of cases and the lowest number of cases per head of population.

Number of fatalities: 137; 5 new deaths this week

Number of recoveries: 1662 ; 433 new recoveries this week

Murcia has 58 patients hospitalised, with 11 in intensive care, falls of 13 and 8 respectively this week.

Active cases by municipality:

Only fourteen of the 45 municipalities in the Region of Murcia now have active cases, as opposed to 17 last week.

The main cities are the principal points of infection (NB: The figures cover the whole of the municipalities of Murcia city and Cartagena which include the actual urban area as well as the outlying

districts).Murcia municipality (includes Sucina, Corvera, Gea y Truyols and other outlying districts; 174; 
Cartagena municipality includes Los Belones, Cabo de Palos and long stretches of coastline around the Mar Menor and on the Mediterranean coast as far as la Azohía; 61

Molina de Segura; 15
Yecla; 19
Santomera; 24
Abanilla ; 13
Cieza; 15
Lorca; 14
Calasparra; 8
Alcantarilla; 5
Jumilla; 10
Archena; 5
Totana; 5
Fortuna; 5

All other municipalities have no active cases.

State of emergency extended to 24th May

"Choose between the state of emergency or chaos," the Prime Minister said.

On Wednesday the national government gained the approval of parliament to extend the state of emergency until 24th May, but it was a hard fought battle and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was forced to agree to a wide range of requests from the different political parties in order to push through the extension.

One of the main points which came out of the parliamentary debate was the determination of the 17 autonomous communities to have a greater say in the de-escalation process, allowing them to make more decisions at a regional level, depending on the needs of their own region.

It has not been ruled out that there may be further extensions, but is becoming increasingly difficult for the PM to push these through as the crisis continues.

De-escalation

Throughout this week Spain has been in the "zero phase" of the Covid de-escalation plan and during the early part of the week there was significant discussion and debate about which regions of Spain would move onto phase 1.

The debate about de-escalation centres principally around the desire of the Health Ministry to overcome the Covid virus using the lockdown mechanism to restrict movement, thereby reducing transmission rates, against the economic needs of businesses to resume work and the emotional needs of the public to lead a normal life.

Although the Murcian regional government is keen to set the region's businesses back on the road to recovery, it also fears the implications of a "rushed" de-escalation, which could ultimately prolong the pandemic and lead to longer-term economic problems. More on this topic below.

Regions which felt that they met the criteria for moving onto Phase 1 submitted their reports to the Ministry during the week and will be notified on Saturday if their petition has been accepted. Two regions have opted to remain at phase zero; Cataluña (51,733 cases) and Castilla y León (17,716), both of which still have high numbers of cases and are reporting higher levels of new cases.
Madrid, which has suffered the highest number of cases and fatalities, (64,333) has petitioned to enter phase one, but the government is highly unlikely to accept the petition according to reports in the national media on Friday afternoon. On Thursday the regional health director of Madrid, Yolanda Fuentes, resigned following internal disagreement over the topic; although the President of the Region of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, maintains that the region is ready and willing to pass into phase 1, Fuentes disagreed strongly and handed in her resignation. The Health Ministry, it appears, seems inclined to agree with her and looks set to reject the petition of Madrid.

With its low case rate, Murcia meets all of the criteria established for de-escalation.

Murcia continues to maintain the lowest incidence rate of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants of Spain, with 3.41 cases reported in the last 14 days, with the national average at 47.24, followed by the Canary Islands, with 6.78.

Castilla y León has the highest at 103.2, followed by Cataluña, with 99.79, and La Rioja, with 89.3.

Moving into Phase 1 on Monday 11th May

Principal points:

The government has reiterated that residents can only move throughout the province in which they live throughout all phases of the de-escalation process (until June 22nd). In the case of Murcia, which is a single province region, this means throughout the Region of Murcia.

Driving. More than one person may travel in a private vehicle from Monday 11th, so a couple can once again go shopping. Up to nine people may travel in the same vehicle providing they all live in the same house. The use of a mask is not mandatory, but advisable according to the government.

If the passengers of a “people carrier of up to 9 people” are not all resident in the same property, then only two seats per row may be occupied and each passenger must use a mask or other face protection.

This announcement sparked off major confusion as some social media users didn´t understand when they would be allowed to go shopping with a partner, the arguments fuelled by the misinterpretation of a poster published by the Guardia Civíl which covered the use of masks in vehicles; some people thought that they were allowed to shop with their partner if they drove a 2 seater van and there was midweek social media meltdown over the topic.

Shoppers can venture further afield for specific items
Journeys will be permitted anywhere within the same municipality providing the required item is available. If it is not possible to purchase a specific item in the municipality, then drivers will be permitted to drive to the capital of the province or the comarca (administrative area, ie north-west, Campo de Cartagena etc). 
This is not an excuse to drive to Murcia city to shop in Mercadona if you live in Mazarrón, but is a mechanism by which specific items can be collected by prior appointment if something is not available locally.

Groups of up to 10 people will be permitted to meet both in private homes and in public bars from May 11th onwards. 2 metres distancing must be observed in bars and it is essential to book. This particular point has caused significant disquiet this week as the regional health service feels this is premature and could lead to a resurgence in cases. Residents are asked by the regional government to be sensible in relation to this point and try to limit the amount of contacts. Police are particularly worried about the possibility of large "family fiestas" within the Spanish community.

Bars and restaurants permitted to open outdoor terrace areas ONLY, to a maximum of 50% capacity.

Following numerous complaints from hostelry associations that it would be not be economically viable to open with only 30% of external capacity occupied, the government amended the percentage of the open-air terrace space which can now be opened to 50% of capacity.

Many town halls have prepared packages to assist their bars and restaurants as they return to work, some more generous than others, although most have made significant concessions to business owners in relation to taxes and charges which are paid to the local council, reducing business rates, rubbish costs, waiving or reducing the charges usually made for installation of in-street seating areas, as well as offering financial aid for the maintenance of employees.As well as offering financial assistance to their bars and restaurants, local authorities are also looking at extending the areas allocated for bars and restaurants.

Restauranteurs must  disinfect tables and chairs after every service, take the temperatures of staff daily to ensure they are not ill, all uniforms must be washed daily, all staff having either contact with raw food or serving clients must wear masks, two metres must be left between tables, menus must be either throw-away or digital in order to minimise the risk of contamination, adornments should be limited, ie no flowers on the table, no serviette holders or condiment sets, wherever possible cards should be used for payment and any physical contact between serving staff and clients avoided.

Above all, clients must pre-book.

However, for many owners it will simply not be viable to open until they are permitted to seat clients inside their restaurants as the costs of employing staff both front and back of house as well as buying in new supplies are too high. Many businesses have limited external space and for a bar to open with only three or four tables in operation is simply not possible. Phase 2 is not scheduled to begin until May 25th.

Retailers with less than 400 square meters can open but clients must pre-book in order to shop.
Larger shops will have to wait until phase 2 on May 25th.These shops will be permitted to serve clients on a pre-booking basis only (ie, ring for an appointment beforehand) and are only allowed to cater for one client per staff member at any given time. Social distancing must be observed when attending to the client. Stores must install protective screening between clients and staff.
These businesses include, for example, drugstores, hardware stores, ferreterías, electrical retailers or hairdressers. According to the order published by the government, sanitization of the premises twice daily will be mandatory, one of these deep cleans  after closing, to guarantee the elimination of the virus. Shops in which staff wear uniforms must wash staff clothing daily. Toilets may not be used by the clientele except in exceptional situations. In the case of shops where customer service necessarily prevents staff from observing 2 metre distancing from clients (for example, hairdressers, physiotherapy clinics or dental offices), both the professional and the client must use a mask. Again, make an appointment or ring beforehand; don´t just turn up as the shop may not be able to admit you. Click for the Murcia Today business directory for supplier contact details.

Hotels?

In theory hotels are allowed to open but in practice many hoteliers have said this week that they will not open until until either phase 2 (May 25th) or the beginning of July as the only clients they are likely to be able to service are those actually living in the region now and the cost of opening hotels to only cater for a few weekenders is simply too high. Travel between provinces is theoretically not permitted until 22nd June, so there will be no "tourists" until then.The whole topic of international tourism is still up in the air; nobody can say for certain when flights will resume or when Spain will re-open its borders for international holiday visitors.

Street markets

Street markets may once again resume trading from May 11th, but are only allowed to open at 25% of their normal capacity.

Whether they do so or not is a decision for each inpidual municipal council, of which there are 45 in this region, and each will make a decision based on its own local situation.

There is SO MUCH confusion about how markets CAN open and function, that the regional government has held a video conference with the mayors of all 45 municipalities on Friday afternoon to discuss this and has said that it will be producing written guidelines for its councils to help them get their markets up and running again. By early next week there will be more information available about which markets are opening, and there are likely to be a good number of them, so be patient, info will be published as it emerges!

This week it has been confirmed that Cartagena will begin its de-escalation process by allowing only the market vendors selling fruit, vegetables and perishable produce to re-open in the markets which take place throughout the year (NOT the summer -only markets).

Click to see when these markets are open and where they are.

La Unión and Lorca WILL open their street markets next week. Click for la Unión

However, Murcia city municipality vendors have opted NOT to open their street markets. At the moment, the market traders working in the Murcia city municipality, which includes not only the City of Murcia but also areas such as Corvera, Sucina and Gea y Truyols, are not happy about the prospect of opening at 25% of their capacity next week.The traders and town hall have reviewed plans being put in place in not only other areas of the Murcia Region but also in the neighbouring provinces of Alicante and Almería, which include plans to limit the numbers of people allowed into the street at any given time, not allow the public to touch the produce, maintain social distancing between the public queueing to be served etc, and feel that with the high temperatures in Murcia, clients will also be unhappy about having to stand in queues at 11am in the morning in full sun, so they will wait to see if the government modifies the conditions it has laid down, restricting to markets to 25% of their normal size for the two weeks of phase 1. This situation may of course, change.

Lockdown

Bored? Águilas residents get arty during lockdown: Copyart encourages residents to copy great works of art; featuring themselves!!! Click to read

Disinfection spraying has continued right around the region all week, cleaning streets and public areas to minimise the spread of Covid. This is just one of many examples: Disinfectant spraying completed on Condado de Alhama: The work has been paid for fully by Alhama de Murcia council. Click to read

Exercising

This week began with mass confusion as the region entered " phase zero".

The principal cause of the confusion was the wording of the text published in relation to the regulations for exercising as the public was allowed out of lockdown to enjoy daily exercise.

The government finally opted to set specific time bands for the population by age, keeping children, adults, those exercising and the elderly apart.

When the measures were announced verbally it was stated that municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants could exercise freely throughout the time period of 6am and 11pm which was pided into time bands for everyone else as there “is no risk of conglomerations occurring”, but when the state BOE was published the text omitted the word municipality, substituting “separate nuclei of population equivalent to or less than 5,000 inhabitants”.

So some councils took the decision to permit residents in outlying districts to exercise in the open time band, and others decided not to, causing all sorts of confusion. This continued all week, with several articles dedicated to clarifying exactly who could and who couldn´t exercise and when.

Click to see the final listing of municipalities which have published exceptions.

For anyone who is still confused about exercising rules:

The use of a vehicle or public transport to drive to a point from which to exercise is not permitted: all exercise should be taken within a 1km radius of the principal residence.

Those exercising should maintain a 2 metre distance from other people, avoid un-necessary stops, comply with hygiene restrictions and only exercise during the permitted time slots.

There is no limit to the amount of time an inpidual may exercise.

Facemasks are not obligatory.

Adults (aged 14 to 69); 06:00 to 10:00 and again from 20:00 and 23:00.

Adults will be permitted to walk in pairs, provided that these same two people have been living together during the period of confinement, and children aged 14 and over are also included within this grouping.

A carer may walk with a patient. Anyone showing symptoms of Covid-19 is excluded from the physical activity as is anyone in quarantine.

Children 12:00 to 19:00.

Children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult.

Walks with dependents (ie elderly with a carer) and those aged 70+ 10:00 to 12:00 and 19:00 to 20:00

Sportsmen/women; the same as for adults

Of course, all this confusion generated honest mistakes and then there were those who deliberately flouted the law just because they thought they could get away with it: Three surfers fined in the Calblanque regional park in Cartagena for surfing during lockdown; out came the fine books, fine one, driving three in a vehicle, fine two driving more than one kilometre from home to practice sport, fine three, surfing out of exercising hours. Two of the inpiduals concerned had already been denounced more than once for breaching the confinement regulations, and now face arrest for any further incidents. Click to read.

Some councils were distressed to find that members of the public were sitting on benches resting and talking to other members of the public without observing social distancing when they were meant to be exercising. So it wasn´t long before benches were cordoned off in some municipalities and signs appeared in others requesting that the public refrain from sitting on the benches!

Even though temperatures are increasing, it is known that the Covid virus remains active for several days on both hard and soft surfaces (including on clothes), so the authorities are naturally concerned to prevent ANY contacts taking place which could facilitate the spread of the virus.

Imagine how many people could sit on a bench during the course of a day without the authorities being able to disinfect the bench after every person and how easily this could spread the virus should a contagious inpidual sneeze all over the bench before other people sat on it!.

Murcia extends pedestrian crossings and implements flow system to minimise Covid contagion: Due to the sudden upsurge of interest in the capital city for exercising, leading to unexpectedly high pedestrian traffic in the streets, Murcia council has installed encouraging signs to incentivise its residents to maintain social distancing when exercising, widened some of its pedestrian crossings and organised a “traffic flow” system to help minimise physical contact between its joggers, skaters, walkers and cyclists. "Soon we'll be able to embrace each other, but for now we need to keep our distance," is just one of the messages painted on the road crossings.Click to read the whole article

Beaches

This also leads on to the topic of beaches which has been the subject of widespread discussion all week. At the moment we are NOT allowed to sit on beaches, sunbathe on them or sit down with the kids and build sand castles for a pleasurable hour or two, although some municipalities, such as Águilas are permitting walks along the shoreline.

At the moment the national government is planning to allow beaches to open in phase 3 (the advanced phase) of the de-escalation plan, which is currently scheduled for June 8th, an agonizingly long way ahead for most of us, and the regional minister for health, Manuel Villegas, has been in discussions with the national ministry about whether it would be possible to open beaches in Murcia at the beginning of phase 2 on 25th May, a similar request made by his counterpart in the neighbouring region of Andalucia.

He said it was difficult for the public to comprehend how they could walk along the beaches but not sit on them, and how a surfer could enter the water on a surfboard, yet bathers weren´t allowed to swim in the sea.

However, the region’s municipal councils are pided as to whether the beaches should open earlier or later. Some councils have been preparing for all eventualities and are in the advanced stages of preparations, their beaches cleaned, walkways are being laid and they could be ready to open for the 25th with safety measures in place, (san pedro del Pinatar, san Javier and Cartagena although Los Alcázares, Águilas and Mazarrón have expressed their reservations.

So at the moment, the beaches remain off limits! Click to read more about the beaches issue and the preparation underway in san pedro del Pinatar

This summer safety and hygiene are likely to be the top concerns of summer tourists and tourism authorities across Spain are keen to ensure that visitors feel safe and protected at all times during their holiday break so the national government is preparing a new document establishing protocols to be followed relating to the regulation of beaches this summer, research is underway to better understand how contagious the virus could be during a Mediterranean summer and whether holidaymakers on the beach will still be at risk from Covid-19.

On Thursday researchers from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) published a report compiling information about the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in relation to bathing and aquatic activities in which they concluded that the risk of transmission on beaches was "highly unlikely". Click to read the full article which also examines saunas, swimming pools and freshwater swimming.

Facemasks

Facemasks continued to be an important topic this week, for various reasons:

From Monday 4th onwards it became obligatory for both staff and customers to wear masks on public and collective transport services, ie bus, taxi and rail, as well as air and sea transportation.

14 million facemasks were distributed across Spain by the national government and handed out free of charge to users, of which 46,000 were delivered to the Region of Murcia, and distributed through local councils, volunteers and police. Click for full article

30,000 potentially defective masks withdrawn by Murcian Health service.The Murcian Health Service has withdrawn another batch of FFP2 masks (use a filtering valve system) which are believed to be sub-standard and possibly defective this week.

These will now be sent for testing to the UIA, the Unidad de Aprovisionamiento Integral, the central purchasing unit of the health service, to check for defects as well as to verify the integrity of the supplier.

The CESM Medical Union in the Region of Murcia has requested that the regional health authorities qualify in which of the medical facilities the masks have been distributed and carries out PCR tests on all those who have used them should the lot be found to be defective.

77,000 tester kits sent from the Ministry of Health: During the last few days the national health ministry has distributed 1.4 million rapid tester kits throughout Spain, 77,200 of which have been delivered to the Murcia Region.The use of these rapid tests is helping the authorities to work through the backlog of “suspected cases” and identify the number of patients who have been Covid positive, although in most cases, symptoms were mild and the patients have made a full recovery before being tested.

This is increasing the number of known cases rapidly, although most of the “new cases” diagnosed are immediately listed as “recoveries” as occurred yesterday in Murcia; of the 82 “new” coronavirus cases, only 2 were classified as “new active cases” while the remaining 80 were diagnosed with positive antibodies in the blood and automatically joined the list of “recovered cases”.

Council distributes free mask and glove kits throughout Alhama de Murcia. These have also been given to residents on the Condado urbanisation.Click for article

Good news for consumers as Spanish supermarkets start to sell masks:These are cheaper than the surgical masks sold by pharmacists and the queues are shorter! Click for full article

Economy

Worst April unemployment figures on record as Covid takes its toll in Spain.

Although many second home owners have little interest in the Spanish economy, the implications of the employment figures published this week will impact hard on many aspects of life in Spain for at least the next 12 months and it will be difficult to avoid the inevitable fall-out from this Covid crisis.

Normally March and April are positive months for unemployment due to the surge in business activity generated by the Easter holidays, but this year more than half a million (585,000) people lost their jobs in these two months.

Long-term residents may remember how unemployment suddenly started to rise when the property construction sector imploded just before the last economic crisis. Looking back to that point, 40,000 jobs were lost in April 2009; this year 282.891 jobs were lost in the same month, the highest ever recorded and bringing the jobless total up to 3,831,203, the highest since May 2016

However, this data does NOT include workers affected by the system of temporary redundancies, the ERTE system, which is currently affecting 71.530 workers in the Murcia Region due to the Covid lockdown and 3,386,785 nationally.

Most of these workers were laid off on March 30th when non-essential workers were told to stop their commercial activities and this week it was estimated that at least a million of these jobs will disappear in the next few months as so many companies will have been rendered insolvent by the crisis.Click for full article

On Friday a BBVA report was published, concluding that the regions depending most on tourism and social consumption activities will be those most affected by the virus and, moreover, their recovery will be slower. In particular, GDP will suffer greater falls in the Balearic and Canary Islands, and in Mediterranean regions, such as Andalucia, the Region of Murcia, the Valencian Community and Cataluña.

The Region of Murcia can expect a drop of 8.3% in its GDP during 2020, equal to that of Andalusia and the Valencian Community, according to the report.

A lot more of this type of article will again become commonplace as society rallies around to help those in need. These are just a couple of examples from amongst many published this week:

Solidarity alive and well in the north-west: donations continue for Mula food support scheme. Click for article

Alhama volunteers continue to offer help to needy families: The asociación proayuda alimentaria 'Un poco es mucho', (this translates as a little is a lot) located in calle Vidal Abarca, has been distributing food parcels to more than 100 needy families throughout this crisis, helped by the town hall, regional food bank and social services.Click for article

Other stories:

Covid boosts tiger mosquito numbers!

An unexpected side-effect of the Covid-19 crisis has been a proliferation in the number of mosquitos this spring, the combination of abundant rain and empty holiday properties creating perfect breeding grounds for these unwanted pests.

Now that the weather is also warming up (this week we have enjoyed “higher than normal temperatures”) there is plenty of evidence of mosquitos emerging on a far larger scale than in previous years.

The principal problem for municipal services is that second home- owners have not been permitted to visit their second residences for nearly two months and undertake even the most basic of maintenance tasks, such as emptying out unused swimming pools or containers left around the garden in which water has accumulated, the result being a veritable mosquito soup in some places.

Unfortunately the Tiger mosquito is becoming well-established in many areas of the region and councils on the shores of the Mar Menor, including Los Alcázares, Cartagena, Torre Pacheco and san Pedro del Pinatar as well as other inland areas; Totana, Jumilla, Lorca, Puerto Lumbreras and Murcia city and others along the Ricote valley have all announced this week that they were actively spraying both larvicides and pesticides against the Tiger mosquito. Click for full article which contains background info about the tiger mosquito.

Los Alcázares council planning new leisure park in Los Narejos

The council will reform an existing area, adding new facilities and services to create “the largest family leisure green area in the Mar Menor”. The plan is to create an area of more than 36,000 m2 in Los Narejos with a picnic area and barbecues, children's area for all ages, calisthenics exercise equipment, a football pitch, dog exercise area, refreshments and its own parking. Click to read the article

Front of Murcia Cathedral cordoned off as loose masonry falls into the plaza below.
On Sunday evening an external area of Murcia Cathedral was cordoned off following the discovery of loose chunks of masonry on the ground beneath the façade.Click for full article
Huermur, an association in Murcia which is dedicated to the conservation of traditions and patrimony related to the Murcian “huerta” or agricultural heritage, has complained to the Bishopric about the situation, having highlighted the need to restore the front of the cathedral several months ago.
“We can´t have bits falling off the Cathedral every year, “ they said, reminding the cultural department that the building was declared a “Bien de Interés Cultural “ as far back as 1931 and is “one of the most important monuments in the Region of Murcia.”
The principal façade is awaiting funding for restoration work

Government amends prices of tobacco products in Spain: New prices set for cigars, cigarettes and rolling tobacco. Click to read

Firemen rescue puppies from a well in Lorca:Two lucky puppies are now in safe hands. Click to read

Águilas Mayoress indignant as Lorca-Águilas bus service is scrapped: The bus is the only link to the main hospital in Lorca she says. Click to read

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