Local Daily News 21st January
Benidorm is a set: filming returns to the figures of before the pandemic
Benidorm has exhibited for another year at the Madrid International Tourism Fair (Fitur) its offer as a destination for audiovisual productions. The Benidorm Film Office has closed 2022 with pre-pandemic figures. In fact, the mayor Toni Pérez stressed that “we even surpassed the data from the last year prior to the pandemic”, with “118 productions” and “364 days of effective filming”.
The mayor has taken stock in Fitur Screen where he has revealed these “strong data”, that “I would like any other destination” to have and that show “the position of Benidorm as a set”. They also allow them to “breastfeed the extraordinary work developed in the last decade by the Benidorm Film Office and its coordinator, Rosa Llorca, and in which different municipal departments participate.”
Toni Pérez has stressed that in addition to the “fantastic and unique locations” in Benidorm, the shooting figures are also the result of “the facilities that we give to the production companies” so that they can carry out their projects in Benidorm; and he has anticipated that in 2023 the Benidorm Film Office is committed to “facilitating sustainable filming”. As he has explained, the trend in the audiovisual sector is precisely to promote sustainable filming and that is why “we want to go further, providing them with the resources we have and involving the productions in our story of city and destination in favour of sustainability ”.
In this regard, the coordinator of the Film Office explained that “for years” they have been working to promote sustainable filming in the surroundings of the Serra Gelada Natural Park, a point chosen by 54% of the productions. Now “we are going to delve” into this work that in Serra Gelada has been carried out “with the Natural Park and the technicians of the Department of the Environment” and to “extend it to the entire municipal area”.
To this end, a ‘Sustainable Filming’ section has already been created on the Benidorm Film Office website, which includes “a series of recommendations” for producers so that their work is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in which also “we are already including information and municipal resources to facilitate this task”; information and resources that will be progressively expanded.
Thus, a map has been published with all the charging points for electric vehicles installed on public roads and whose use is free for users; At the same time, proposals and recommendations related to waste separation, use of ecological or less polluting vehicles, or choice of accommodation close to the filming locations have been included.
In addition, Toni Pérez has advanced that “in this task of promoting sustainable filming, we are going to promote a course aimed at people from Benidorm and the region to train them as ‘green controller’ or ‘eco manager’, a new professional figure in charge of facilitating and supervising compliance with sustainability criteria in filming”.
With the training of these personnel, Llorca has explained, “we make it easier for producers who have everything in Benidorm, who do not have the need to bring a ‘green controller’ with them because in our city they will be able to hire one”. This staff will join the list of professionals that the Film Office makes available to the production companies and with whom “we generate synergies with the audiovisual sector in the area and with the productive fabric of Benidorm”.
Hospitals detect an increase in heart attacks in young people due to the use of illegal drugs
The consumption of illegal drugs, especially cocaine, causes more heart attacks in young people. Cardiologists such as Araceli Frutos, head of the Hemodynamics Unit of the Sant Joan d’Alacant University Hospital, alert about a risk factor in people under 30 years of age, whose specialists have treated several cases in recent weeks, since heart attacks in occasional users of this Substances of this type arrive in waves, and one of these peaks has recently been recorded.
Even so, the main risk factors for suffering a heart attack are related to the western way of life, that is, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, hypertension, cholesterol or diabetes, since it is usually a multifactorial process. In the harsh phase of the pandemic, the number of heart attacks that were consulted with the Emergency services decreased for fear of going out, but the figures recovered after the confinement.
“Anyone with chest pain lasting more than half an hour should act by calling 112.” This is the message that the expert in coronary crises sends to the general population since time is of the essence. “The sooner an acute heart attack is treated, the better. There is no time to lose because heart muscle cells are destroyed and the obstruction of the coronary arteries must be relieved as soon as possible.”
The doctor emphasises that since the symptoms begin with chest pain, the patient should not take more than 25 or 30 minutes to call the emergency systems if it does not go away and better if it is less. “No taking the car, going to the outpatient clinic or the hospital ER, you have to call 112 to send the SAMU,” insists Frutos, who recalls that after 12 noon without acting on this pain the benefit disappears, so that in a maximum of 45 minutes of evolution the infarcted person should be in the Hemodynamics room in the hands of the doctors.
With the aim of optimising diagnostic tools in the super-acute phase of a heart attack, doctors and nursing staff from the Valencian Community Health Emergency Service (SESCV) and the Urgent Medical Aid Service (SAMU) from three health departments in the province of Alicante, the Sant Joan University Hospital participated in a meeting to update the heart attack code. Fifty hundred attendees updated their knowledge, headed by the assistant director of the Provincial Emergency Service, Esther Botella, for whom coordination is essential, “we ask that these sharings become a habit and are carried out every six months”.
Although there is a current protocol, this exchange of knowledge allows professionals to get up to date, review complex situations, and think about how to act and deepen the diagnosis together with the Emergency system, which “is the one that faces the patient in the street,” said Frutos. In the meeting, doubts of patients with chest pain and special echocardiograms or with left bundle branch block were resolved, cases in which it is not easy to see the acute myocardial infarction on paper.
In this sense, the SAMU doctor Jorge Esteller points out that in the Hemodynamics service the obstructed coronary artery is unobstructed, and a stent is usually placed to avoid subsequent obstructions, “so that the heart of a patient, which 25 years ago would have been very affected, now he suffers minimal or negligible damage, and in a few days he can be at home carrying out a normal life or almost”.
Along the same lines as the cardiologist, the Emergency physician points out that time is vital for transfer to a hospital with 24-hour hemodynamics, such as the Generales de Alicante and Elche, or the Hospital de Sant Joan.
Covid infections already triple flu cases, which plummet
The behaviour of respiratory viruses has turned around with a rebound in covid-19 infections after family gatherings typical of Christmas and against the flu it has plummeted. This is clear from the data from the latest bulletin of the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System (SiVIRA) of the Ministry of Health, implemented in December to monitor three viruses that have overlapped since the pandemic: influenza, syncytial virus that causes most cases of bronchiolitis and SARS-CoV-2 itself. This reading corresponds to the week of January 9th to 15th, the first week after the Christmas holidays.
According to the latest epidemiological information, covid-19 infections rebounded to 142 cases per 100,000 inhabitants compared to 82.3 cases the previous week, which represents an increase of more than 73%. On the other hand, the flu plummeted, by 60%, with an incidence of 54.9 flu cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a third of the registered cases of coronavirus, turning around respiratory infections that have generally fallen in its incidence. Despite the rebound in covid-19 cases above the flu, those 142 cases per 100,000 inhabitants are well below the 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in December.
Regarding syndromic surveillance in hospitals, the rate of serious cases is 29.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, a lower level, however, than in December, compared to the 21.4 state average. The greatest concern is in those over 80 years of age, since the severity curve of respiratory infections rises considerably in this age range, monopolising the cases that require admission.
Dr. Juan Francisco Navarro, who directs the Preventive Medicine service at the General Hospital of Elche and chairs the Valencian Society of Preventive and Public Health, highlights the general improvement of the data and that within the tremendous drop in the incidence of cases of flu and covid that have occurred since the beginning of December the fact that the coronavirus is now above “is nothing more than a statistical artefact. They can continue hand in hand but what is verifiable is the great drop in both , with a positivity of covid-19 of 12% compared to 4.9% only for the flu”.
Regarding the rate of serious infections that require hospitalisation, he considers that Primary Care and all outpatient consultations are working very well to stop patients from having to be hospitalised. According to the doctor, the ER is cushioning the problem very well and only the most serious are in hospitals. “In the province they are quite well and with an occupancy of beds due to severe acute respiratory diseases that does not reach 10%.”
Regarding the sentinel surveillance system in Primary Care, the positivity of SARS-CoV-2 samples analysed in health centres is 12.7% compared to 11.9% for syncytial virus and 4.9% for the flu. The general incidence of the three respiratory infections analysed by this system is 1,120 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, double the state average, located at 567.5 cases.
By health areas, the most complicated situation is in the departments of Alcoy, Elda and Orihuela, with peaks of up to 1,500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants of covid, flu or syncytial virus, while in coastal areas the incidence has dropped considerably.
It is the first time since the beginning of December with a greater circulation of coronavirus than flu, with variant A as predominant among the respiratory viruses circulating in the province of Alicante after two winters with fewer cases than usual due to the protection they provided face masks and social distancing due to covid-19.
The Council of State reproaches Ribera for his lack of transparency and sees serious flaws in the Tajo and Segura plans
Historical and weighty observations in favour of the Tagus-Segura. The almost one hundred page report that the Council of State has sent to Vice President Teresa Ribera makes it crystal clear that the Ministry for Ecological Transition has not acted with transparency and rigour in the processing of the Tagus and Segura hydrological plans, the drafting of which should have been done in a coordinated manner, nor in the ninth provision that opened the possibility of revising the flows downwards in 2025. In this way, the document enables the irrigators and the Council to go to Justice with certain guarantees of success , if the Government continues with its decision to approve the hydrological plans next Tuesday in the Council of Ministers. The opinion is unfavourable because it understands that the project does not guarantee the coordination of the Tagus and Segura plans or compliance with the transfer legislation. For this reason, it recommends the modification of the method of implementation of ecological flows, according to the director of the Water Department of the University of Alicante, Joaquín Melgarejo.
The opinion makes it clear, therefore, that Vice President Teresa Ribera did not act with due transparency when explaining the change. In other words, the modification of the ninth additional provision that opened the possibility of an upward revision of ecological flows. In this way and without going back, the Council of Ministers will approve next Tuesday a hydrological plan for the Tagus that opens the official roadmap to leave the province without water for irrigation, which must replace it, almost one hundred percent, by desalination from 2027. The Central Union of the Tajo-Segura Aqueduct plans to take the plan to the Court after having proof of approval and publication in the BOE, and will ask the judge for immediate precautionary measures, according to its vice president, Javier Berenguer.
The validation by the Water Council of the hydrological plans for the Tagus, which will almost leave farmers and 35 municipalities in the province without water from the river as of 2027, and for Segura, which forces them to close the aquifers and stop extracting groundwater without having an alternative or sufficient flow with desalinated water, this week has become another example of the issues (it is not the responsibility of the Council of State, of course) of the central government towards the province of Alicante. Six thousand direct jobs are at stake, 27,000 hectares and three billion euros of annual economic volume in the province of Alicante alone.
Regarding the Tagus Hydrological Plan, the opinion underlines that the Ministry for Ecological Transition has full powers to have modified the project after its approval by the National Water Council as it is inter-community basins, thus minimising the legal arguments of the Consell’s allegations. and the irrigators, who will end up in the Supreme Court. However, it has also given it an important (non-binding) wake-up call by reproaching it for a lack of transparency when it comes to modifying the already infamous ninth provision, and for the lack of coordination in the drafting of the Tagus and Segura plans. , which are closely related.
From the reading of the file sent to the Council of State, it can be deduced that, in effect, according to its resolution, that the debate and vote in the National Water Council on November 29 did not take place with the clarity and transparency with which they should have passed. “This is inferred, above all, from the explanations of vote that are attached to the report of the National Water Council. In several of them it is highlighted that there was some confusion about whether the text of the ninth additional provision that was voted on was the original or the one proposed “in voce” by the Secretary of State for the Environment, for which reason some of the votes were issued conditionally to the fact that the wording was one or the other, affirms the opinion.