07/18/2020 - 11:33
- Clarín.com
- World
"This is a disaster", summarizes, with desolation, María Quintana, in front of the empty terrace of her bar, in front of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona , where the authorities asked their citizens to stay at home in the face of a virus that is raging again.
The second Spanish city dawned taciturn this Saturday, when the measures of the Catalan regional government began to stop the proliferation of coronavirus cases that tripled in a week and added almost 800 new infections in seven days.
Among them is the recommendation not to leave the house if it is not necessary , the prohibition to gather more than 10 people or the closing of theaters, cinemas, discotheques or concert halls, which had reopened a few weeks ago.
The Güell park in Barcelona, this Saturday, with fewer visitors than other weekends, in fear of a new scourge of the coronavirus. / EFE
"Now that a bit of revival was beginning to show and there was a tourist from outside Spain, it is a step backwards," says María Quintana, 35, from inside her small establishment.
In front of the bar, the stools have been removed because the regional authorities prohibited them from serving there. On the terrace, the tables are widely separated, although there are no customers either, despite the measures taken to maintain the safety distance.
"If they re-impose confinement and force us to close, I will lower the blind, but with my neck under it, like a guillotine, because we cannot survive," he laments.
The new restrictions come less than a month after the end of the state of alarm in Spain , which framed the severe confinement decreed by the government to significantly reduce the transmission of a virus that claimed more than 28,400 lives in the country.
The chinstrap is now mandatory in Barcelona, where a new quarantine is not ruled out if the increase in new cases of Covid-19 is not stopped. / AFP
It also severely damaged the country's economic fabric, especially in sectors such as transportation and tourism, which it hoped would mitigate losses during the summer season.
But in front of the unfinished Sagrada Familia basilica, one of the most visited monuments in Barcelona, tourists could count on the fingers of their hands this Saturday, most of them oblivious to the new restrictions decreed by the regional government.
"We did not know, although it is true that there are not many people on the street. But I do not think that we will change our plans," said Karolina Kapounova, a 23-year-old Czech woman, sweating behind the chinstrap, whose use in public spaces is mandatory in most regions of Spain.
"With the heat, it's a little bit annoying," he added.
Little public this Saturday in the popular Boquería market in the center of Barcelona. / EFE
"Some tourists are seen, but they are few. And then they come and find that the Sagrada Familia is closed, the tourist bus does not work ...", explains Joan López, a 39-year-old kiosk located in front of the temple.
Although he says he needs tourism "like the air he breathes", he prefers that strict measures be taken to minimize the virus. "Being now yes now not, is wasting time," he explains.
"With recommendations, people ignore it. Today the city seems empty, but because yesterday they all left outside the weekend ... People have left before they lock us up," he exclaims.
Back to quarantine?
Although the regional government asked the more than three million inhabitants of Barcelona and its metropolitan area not to do so, traffic services recorded the departure of some 350,000 vehicles to nearby coastal areas .
"It is a mistake," the director of the regional coronavirus monitoring committee, Dr. Jacobo Mendidoroz, warned on local radio. "The next step is home confinement," he added.
Las Ramblas in Barcelona, this Saturday, with less public than usual, while the government warns of the rebound in coronavirus infections. / AFP
Olga Torres, who is having a drink with a friend on a terrace, hopes that this will not be reached.
"It is not funny to think that they will confine us again, but I think they will think about it a lot because economically it will be a catastrophe," says this 55-year-old woman.
And while waiting to calculate the damages of this backward step, criticism of the Catalan separatist government multiplies, which they accuse of lack of preparation to control the disease, despite the fact that for months the local authorities have condemned the management of the pandemic. made by the Spanish Executive, implying in many cases that, had they had full powers, they would have achieved better results.
"Mismanagement leads us to a new confinement," said the editorial in the Catalan newspaper Ara, close to separatism, this Saturday.
Source: AFP