Valencia health chief concerned over rise in coronavirus infections among tourists in Benidorm

Coronavirus infections among tourists visiting the city of Benidorm, on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, have risen sharply since October 5, according to the Valencia regional health chief Ana Barceló. But the politician, speaking on Tuesday, sought to avoid causing alarm with the news.

The incidence of the coronavirus in the city, which is located in Alicante province, is currently at 286 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the previous 14 days, compared to the average in Spain of 46 and 49 in the Valencia region as a whole, according to the latest Health Ministry data released on Monday evening.

Of the latest cases detected in Benidorm, 53% were among the foreign population. British tourists usually account for 45% of the population of the city, although that number is currently at around 24%. In recent weeks that percentage has been rising, now that Covid-19 restrictions on travel have been relaxed.

There is no reason to create concern, either among the tourists who are currently visiting us nor among residents

Toni Pérez, mayor of Benidorm

In the United Kingdom, coronavirus infections have recently shot up once more and the situation is of great concern to health experts. The 14-day incidence in the UK is currently 928.22 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data released on Sunday. There is currently no legal obligation in England to wear masks in any situation, although they are still necessary inside stores and some other indoor settings in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

On Tuesday, Barceló expressed the “concern” of her department given the situation in Benidorm and announced that there will be “monitoring in order to adopt measures if necessary to control the situation presented in the city.” She added that the infection curve began to rise on October 5, coinciding with the arrival of mostly British tourists, although there have been recorded cases among visitors from other countries as well.

There has not been any rise in hospitalizations in Benidorm due to Covid-19, meanwhile, nor in the surrounding areas. The majority of tourists visiting the famous city are supposedly vaccinated against Covid-19 before arrival.

For now, Barceló – a member of the PSPV-PSOE, the Valencian branch of the Socialist Party (PSOE) – has ruled out modifying the system for monitoring the cumulative incidence, in order to include the floating population as well as official residents. This has been called for by the Benidorm city council, which is run by Mayor Toni Pérez of the conservative Popular Party (PP), as well as the tourism association Hosbec.

On Monday, Pérez pointed out that there are 75,000 people officially residing in Benidorm while in reality the city is home to 180,000 citizens – “three times more,” he stated. He insisted that the real coronavirus incidence is “very different from what is being published by the health authorities.” If the regional health chief examined the data according to the real population levels, he continued, the city of Benidorm would “be in the ballpark of the figures from any other municipality in Spain.”

The mayor expressed his concern for the message that is being conveyed about Benidorm and added that “there is no reason to create concern, either among the tourists who are currently visiting us nor among residents,” because “safety is a priority for us.”

In a statement, Hosbec also said that the incidence data for Benidorm should be “qualified and extrapolated to the effective population,” given that the data being supplied does “not reflect the real situation and creates distortions that damage the image of the destination.”

The association added that if the figure of 180,000 inhabitants is used, the cumulative incidence would come in at 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, something that “is more in line with the real situation, and would dispel any situation of concern.”

Barceló explained on Tuesday that the regional health department takes into account positive cases that are detected independently of where they take place, because even if they are among tourists “they can infect others just the same” while they are residing in the area. She insisted that they must be included in the data even if they push up the cumulative incidence, and that the region’s health authorities have to register them independently of the person’s country of origin.

She added that it is very difficult to determine the exact numbers of the floating population, and that not even local councils have up-to-date, accurate figures.

Sources from Benidorm council, meanwhile, claim to have a very accurate daily estimate of the number of visitors to the city thanks to the consumption of water and the amount of trash that is generated. What’s more, they say that they have been monitoring the current situation of the pandemic in the main countries from which their tourists travel.