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Madrid will limit social life before the alert of neighboring autonomies

2020-09-04T00:30:28.576Z


Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha demanded "coordinated" restrictions due to fear of the export of cases from the capital, as happened in the first wave


While the leaders of the Community of Madrid pointed to the Barajas airport - where 364 cases of coronavirus have officially entered since the borders were opened two months ago - the leaders of the neighboring autonomies looked at Madrid with concern.

This Thursday, in a single day, it added 2,859 infections to the series.

They did not understand in Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha that, while they suspended parties and limited social gatherings with an incidence of 216 and 198 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days respectively, in Madrid (with 467.4) there was no they would have implemented more measures than those agreed by all regional governments with the Ministry of Health on August 14.

  • The growth of the epidemic slows and adds almost 9,000 new cases

This is about to change.

After a meeting requested by Castilla-La Mancha that was held on Wednesday afternoon with Castilla y León, the Ministry of Health and the community of Madrid itself, the latter has decided to tighten social restrictions, with limited capacity for terraces, to events with large attendance of people or wakes, although the specific measures have not yet been announced.

The idea is that highly interconnected places have similar strategies to fight the virus.

Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, professor in Preventive Medicine at the Autonomous University of Madrid, recalls that many studies have shown that mobility between regions is one of the major determinants of the spread of the epidemic.

One from the National Epidemiology Center pointed out that the connection with Madrid was in the first wave one of the five determining factors in the spread of the virus.

Another Institute of Interdisciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (participated by the CSIC) and Kido Dynamics assured that 76% of the peak of mortality in Spain could be explained before May from the mobility between each province with Madrid in proportion to its number of population.

The interconnection between Madrid and its neighboring provinces is such that many people who live in them go to the capital to work every day.

Segovia and Toledo, for example, are less than half an hour away by train.

According to a study by the CSIC, 300,000 people moved between Madrid, Toledo and Guadalajara every day before the confinement in March.

Second residences are also frequent in neighboring communities and in summer the traffic to see relatives is constant.

Castilla-La Mancha ensures that 75% of the outbreaks in its community have their direct or indirect origin in Madrid.

Most of its new cases are registered in Toledo and Guadalajara, the two provinces most connected to the capital.

Its president, Emiliano García-Page, has described Madrid as a "radioactive viral bomb."

His Health Minister, the socialist Jesús Fernández Sanz, clearly asked the government of the popular Isabel Díaz Ayuso to take measures.

In Castilla y León, which has regressed to something equivalent to phase 1 in Valladolid and Salamanca, they are more subtle.

A spokeswoman is limited to speaking of "coordination".

But provinces such as Ávila and Segovia also have constant communication with Madrid.

It is no coincidence that the latter was one of the hardest hit by the first wave of infections in the spring.

According to data from their Health Department, between July and August they treated more than 50,000 displaced patients from the neighboring community.

Fernando Simón, the director of the Center for Control of Health Alerts and Emergencies, acknowledged this Thursday that Madrid, being the community with the most transmission, is also the one that "worries the most."

"They are trying to implement adequate measures and this effect will be achieved and observed shortly, but the bells cannot be thrown on the fly until this effect is obvious," he said in his appearance.

Simón entered the question of mobility and Madrid's relationship with Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León: “When we talk about risks with a centrifugal effect, the surrounding communities may be concerned, but it is true that the movement of people is reciprocal .

In the Castiles of course they have to be watching what happens, they have no other.

I know that they are trying to implement very strong control measures, even with the confinement of municipalities ”, measures that have been applied in Bolaños de Calatrava, in Ciudad Real, among other places.

  • "Madrid assumed that it has to impose more restrictions"

Artalejo points out that it is logical that communities with a lot of contact and similar epidemiological risks take similar measures, although these do not have strong scientific support.

The professor refers to the fact that in such a new epidemic, restrictions such as the limitation of meetings of more than ten people, as Castilla-La Mancha is implementing for example in municipalities with more than 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, are more dictated by "Good judgment" than by evidence.

Given this reality, the Community of Madrid is studying a new package of decisions that the Ministry of Health will present "shortly", according to a spokesperson.

This Friday, at 11.00, the area councilor, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, will appear before the media in an act that was not planned and was convened this Thursday afternoon.

"The community will take measures according to the epidemiological situation," he said Thursday in a television intervention.

Illa rules out a perimeter confinement

Fernando Simón always says that all measures are on the table, but that only the most extreme measures will be used if necessary.

A general lockdown, as happened in March and April, is not something that is currently on the horizon.

This was pointed out this Thursday by the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, in an interview on the SER network.

It continues betting on “surgical” measures, that is, quarantines in specific areas.

He also assured that a perimeter confinement in Madrid to prevent the community from exporting cases to other regions "not applicable."

The Ministry of Health of this community even recommended to the residents of poor neighborhoods in the south, the most affected, not to leave their homes if it was not necessary, but its president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has repeatedly been against freezing the exercise.

For now, Madrid implements very light restrictions, such as a maximum of 50 people in wakes and 75% occupancy in churches.

The community recommends not to exceed 10 people in social gatherings, but there are no prohibitions to exceed this number.

Information about the coronavirus

- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic

- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in Spain and in each autonomy

- Download the tracking application for Spain

- Search engine: The new normal by municipalities

- Guide to action against the disease

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2020-09-04

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