As the number of new cases of the virus per day went above 40,000 on Friday, the health minister, Salvador Illa, conceded that the data were "very worrying". Illa has been in favour of adopting any "effective" measures to curb the third wave, although he has wanted to wait to assess the impact of new restrictions adopted by regional governments.
Various regions have been calling for an earlier curfew or home confinement (lockdown). Under the state of alarm, regional presidents have to request authorisation from Madrid for an alteration to its terms, but this hasn't stopped Castile and León having unilaterally decided to bring the curfew forward to 8pm. Illa's response has been to say that if there is to be a change to the time, this should be done "by talking to everyone".
"Anything that concerns a restriction of fundamental rights, such as mobility, must always be done with the maximum legal guarantees. If new measures are to be articulated, these will be raised at the Inter-Territorial Council (for the National Health System) in order that there are legal guarantees."
With support for home confinement said to be increasing, Illa and the Spanish government are resisting the calls. "We are not currently contemplating any home confinement. We beat the second wave without confinement."
According to the minister, the vaccination programme is proceeding at "cruising speed". Almost 70% of doses delivered to the regions have been administered. The objective, he stresses, is vaccination of 70% of the population by the summer. Over the coming months, "more people will be vaccinated than are infected".
Target population groups for the vaccine are to be announced in the next few days. These will be ones to receive the vaccine after the first stage - care homes, frontline health personnel - has been covered.
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If other regions want to do whatever they want to do: go nuts. But it cannot be that if some regions want something, we all have to suffer the same consequences. And home confinement in reality is not going to do much anyway, as people will still go to work, travel on busses, go shopping, etc . So, I hope the wise men in Madrid keep resisting the call for a new lock down.
May aswell have a earlier curfew would be nice if hibernation pills were free. Leave my sh#t life thanks to Armengol and her mob and wake up to people realising that covid is not going away it's the new influenza, so consider an annual vaccine to deal with each strain. More people will die but that's what darwinism is all about.
All that's happening here in the rest of Spain now the curfew is at 2000, is even more people are going to bars/supermarkets/restaurants (all together in confined space), all at the same, earlier, time.
With everything shut anyway, we might as well get rid of the whole curfew thing anyway. What is the point?
Not happy with the poorly thought through measures being taken to manage the infection rate. The steps of recent are actually forcing people into denser proximity rather than what is intended. There are other paradoxes that are applicable to what is permitted to be open and what is not. The unnecessary closures of open-air cafes and restaurants is simply counter-productive in many respects. Such facilities are very important right now. They just need very strict rules - stricter than have been.
Today (Sunday) there have been neighbours around me having their friends and families visit them to socialise and have lunch together. Nothing seems to change in the way they care about themselves and others who obey the rules. If the vaccines don't do the trick then millions more are going to die.
I cannot see any evidence that bringing the curfew forward will make much of a difference. And to call the vaccination being at cruising speed is plainly idiotic! Stuck in first gear more like.