Nearly 5,000 people are in quarantine after high school students on vacation provoked a major Covid-19 outbreak on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, a senior official said Monday.
Authorities have confirmed nearly 1,200 positive cases, said Fernando Simon, Spain’s emergency medical services co-ordinator.
The teens, who are celebrating graduating from university last week, have created an “ideal breeding ground” for the virus as they mingle with other people from across Spain and abroad, Simon told a news conference.
After the outbreak became apparent, Mallorca’s health authorities conducted mass testing of hundreds of students. It is believed that this spread when hundreds of students gathered for concerts and street parties.
Officials have so far tracked down 5,126 travelers to Mallorca. More than 900 cases of Covid-19 in eight regions of mainland Spain were tracked before the outbreak.
Dozens of infected teenagers are still on the island. Some are housed in their hotel rooms, while others have been transferred to a hotel used by local authorities to isolate people with mild symptoms or suspected cases.
Simon noted that the parents of the teens were probably around 45 and 55 years old, and not all members of this age group received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, which could lead to transmission.