"Who is not worried?" : Madrid, between new restrictions and the specter of the second wave

After several months of strict containment and a summer of "slackening", the region of Madrid, Spain, is experiencing new restrictions.

This Friday, local authorities have indeed announced a restriction on freedom of movement in certain districts of the capital and municipalities in its inner suburbs, mainly in the south.

Measures that affect 13% of its population, which has 6.6 million inhabitants.

In question, the sharp rise in Covid-19 contamination in the area, which concentrated a third of the total of new cases across the country on Thursday.

On the side of the inhabitants of the capital of Madrid, it is difficult to accept the possible return to an isolated life.

According to the latest report from the regional authorities, the pressure on the health system has increased, with 2,850 people hospitalized, including 392 in intensive care.

More than 20% of hospital beds are occupied by Covid patients.

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Despite this observation, these new restrictions go badly with the Madrilenians, still tested by a very strict confinement last spring.

"A local re-containment, it would be useless," reacts Maria, a 35-year-old pharmacist.

“In Madrid, the majority of people work miles from their homes.

What's the point of isolating an area if people have to go and work elsewhere?

She asks herself.

Jobs at stake

Employment is precisely the main concern of Madrid residents.

Much of the contamination has been reported in the poorest areas of the capital.

And many Spaniards lost their jobs during the crisis, like Verónica: “I managed tourist apartments in the historic center of Madrid, and overnight my income fell to zero,” she says.

Without a job since confinement, the 43-year-old mother is looking to change sectors.

But further restrictions would complicate everything.

“I have two children.

Without a school, you have to take care of it.

I have already had to give up a master's degree that I was doing between March and June, to be their teacher, ”she adds.

These new restrictions could also have a heavy psychological impact on more isolated people, whose mental health has already been weakened by the spring confinement.

“I have very few friends who live near me.

Reconfinement would mean once again being separated from loved ones and having to fight loneliness, ”says Mathilde, a 24-year-old Frenchwoman who has lived in Madrid for three years.

Teleworking since the start of her contract in the administration of a major car brand, she has not even had time to "discover her new colleagues".

"We will have to confine all of Madrid"

Despite all these questions about the interest of these restrictions, the people of Madrid do not deny the seriousness of the virus.

“Who isn't worried?

This has been going on for months, months of fear, sadness and uncertainty at the health and economic levels, ”says Maria, the pharmacist.

"The first weeks were very hard, we worked in fear, especially for us and our families, we did everything not to infect anyone who could not survive the virus," she continues.

Many doctors say they are under pressure.

With autumn coming, and with it, the seasonal flu, their services are once again in danger of being saturated, we read in El Pais.

At the Ramón y Cajal hospital, the emergency doctor Cesar Carballo even says that it is "already too late".

“We will have to ask for an effort from all Madrilenians.

We will have to confine the whole of Madrid, ”he thundered to the Telemadrid channel.

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The efforts, Brooke, a 27-year-old English teacher, is willing to make them, for "a few weeks."

"But if it lasts for months ... It is not possible," she says.

“Now we need a bit of normalcy, to adapt to this new life that is ours.

"