What have Illora in Granada and South Korea got in common? The answer is their way of tackling Covid-19 and preventing contagion.

South Korea managed to contain contagion by promptly identifying those that have the virus and tracking down their contacts, thanks to massive testing from the beginning. Illora obtained the same result using a different tactic and it’s all down to the local Chief of Police.

This officer, working in close conjunction with the town’s medical centre, made it his quest to follow the trail of infected locals, whilst turning the town into a lock-down fortress.

What was crucial was to start with quaranteening before it became general around Spain and above all, the self discipline shown by the residents of Illora.

He managed to contact, directly or indirectly, around 200 residents suspected of coming into contact with six infected persons. Everybody played their part under the instructions from the Policía Local and the doctors at the medical centre.

Here, at the beginning of June, there is not one case of Covid-19 amongst the 10,233 inhabitants, giving the town the lowest contagion amongst the towns around it and far removed from the average contagion figures for a town of its size. Illora has 0.58% contagion per 1,000 inhabitants compared with the average for the province of 3.24 per 1,000 or the 4.82% for the whole of Spain – these are mid May figures, let’s not forget.

When we say compared by its surrouding towns, if you compare Pinos Puentes, which has roughly the same inhabitants (10,718) you will see that the latter has a contagion figure of 5.84% with ten deaths – Illora has been lucky to not have had one. A more telling comparison would be with Montefría, with half the number of inhabitants, has a contagion figure of 6.03% per 1,000 inhabitants.

“If we can be accused of anything, it would be of acting excessively rather than insufficiently,” said the Mayor, Antonio Salazar, who recognises the sacrifice made by his fellow townsfolk and the extra burden supported by the Policía Local, medical staff and public representatives.

“We were lucky not to have had an outbreak in our care home for the elder, but fortune comes to those that work for it,” he concluded.

(Illora, Poniente, Granada, Andalucia)