Public health authorities convened a coordination meeting at the Ministry of Health on Carrer de la Unió on Saturday morning, after regional clinics in the inland hill towns near the Cordoba border reported a cluster of unusual respiratory cases. The Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sílvia Montbrú, said there was no cause for alarm and confirmed that epidemiological teams had been dispatched.

The Ministry is in contact with international health bodies monitoring a rodent-borne viral illness circulating in parts of southern Europe. Citizens in the affected parishes have been advised to avoid contact with wild rodents and to report symptoms to their local health post.

The inland cluster is not, on present evidence, connected to the Estrella de Llevant cluster at berth seven, which the Port Sanitation Council has handled as a maritime matter. That two distinct files have opened in the same week, on the same family of pathogen, is the sort of coincidence that the Ministry would prefer not to dwell on in public and the Herald is obliged to note.