The Almaria Herald

The Port Sanitation Council is expected to deliver its preliminary report on the Estrella de Llevant and the Estrella de Poniente this evening, hours before the Chamber takes up the fuel stabilisation vote. Four sailors from the Llevant remain hospitalised at the Clínica Sant Cardenal Marín; seven contacts from the Poniente are under observation at Sant Miquel, with one held in isolation. The cordon at berth seven of the Cordoba pier is unchanged.

The Council's chairman, Dr. Aleix Quiroga, has kept the session closed. Officials familiar with the drafting say the report will set out clinical findings, the chain of contacts traced since Tuesday, and the conditions under which the cordon may be narrowed. It will not, on present indications, recommend lifting the quarantine before Monday.

The timing is awkward and everyone in the building knows it. The Chamber convenes at ten. The Council's findings will land in members' hands at breakfast, if at all, and several backbenchers have privately complained that they are being asked to vote on a fuel reserve while a parallel public-health file is still in motion at the same pier.

The Government whips' position, conveyed late Saturday, is that the two files are distinct and the vote will proceed. The Opposition has not asked for a deferral. Don Rafael's Nationalists, who have been the loudest voice for discipline this week, have said the same. The Proprietor's bulletin, printed in these pages on Friday, asked for clarity rather than delay.

Clarity, on a Sunday evening, is a great deal to ask of any council.

The Cardenal will name the Poniente contacts, the Llevant four, the eleven of the Passeig and the three correspondents at the intercessions at Sant Joan this morning. That, at least, is on time.