05/15/2020 17:49 – Updated: 05/15/2020 18:45
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The Community of Madrid advances in de-escalation. But little. It does not jump to phase 1, to which the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso aspired, but remains at 0 although with some confinement relief measures. From next Monday, May 18, it will be able to open the retail trade without an appointment and with limited capacity, so that the economy can start to revive, as well as libraries (for loan of books) or museums can operate again. But meetings of up to a maximum of 10 people will not be allowed, nor visits to relatives, nor will they be able to open the terraces bars and restaurants with a 50% occupancy. The emblem region of the PP remains in a kind of phase 0.5, the same as the Generalitat de Catalunya had claimed for Barcelona, and which it also agrees to. The Community has no official knowledge of Salvador Illa’s decision, although he warns in advance that he does not share it and that it is a comparative grievance with respect to other regions that have risen to the first step, being, he alleges, less well prepared.
The Ministry of Health, sources of the central government told this newspaper, opts for an analogous solution in the two big cities of the country to avoid a new outbreak of coronavirus contagion. The two points in which any lack of control of the pandemic can have more severe consequences. But just as it satisfies the wishes of the Government of Quim Torra, which during the alarm period is showing itself to be even more conservative in its movements than the Executive of Pedro Sánchez and now, in the transition, is opting for caution, it does not meet the expectations of Diaz Ayuso. The regional government wants to move faster, arguing that it meets the requirements and that it needs openness so that its economic fabric is not destroyed. But Illa’s decision is an attempt to Balance with the Community of Madrid, the main focus of territorial tension facing the socialist leader. The region and Ayuso have become the banner of Pablo Casado against Sánchez.
The regional executive already digested with difficulty last week the slowdown in health to its claim to progress to phase 1. But the conservative leader avoided waging a contest in the open, aware that her confrontational strategy had been bored by the internal crisis of his Cabinet: from the disagreements between the president and his partner and vice president, Ignacio Aguado, to the resignation of the general director of Public Health, Yolanda Fuentes, who did not find it reasonable to demand the jump to stage 1. After the door was slammed, the Government regional promised that he would present his application immediately, on Monday 11. Finally the report did not raise it to Health until Wednesday 13, again Out of time.
In this intermediate station, they will not be able to open the terraces or visits to family members will be allowed. But there are funerals or museums with limitations
On Thursday, after the first bilateral meeting between Salvador Illa and his team in the ministry and the Ministry of Health, a conclusion: the Government was inclined not to let Madrid pass phase, as Ayuso announced via Twitter in a message in which shooting towards the Executive, as did not appreciate “technical reasons” in the decision.
???? The Ministry of Health does not seem to be willing for Madrid to go to phase 1, but it does not give technical reasons.
We are called to another meeting tomorrow. Madrid meets all the criteria: it has increased its capacity of beds and PCR, lower infection rate …
– Isabel Díaz Ayuso (@IdiazAyuso) May 14, 2020
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The central government, however, considered that Madrid not yet safe from a new regrowth – it registers a cumulative incidence higher than the national average, and is the third community with the most new cases – and that the early detection system that has been put in place is not sufficiently robust. Health influences that, in this stage of de-escalation towards the new normality, with such a low prevalence of the disease —only 5% of the population in the entire State has passed the covid-19—, it is essential that the mechanisms be strengthened early diagnosis and monitoring of close contacts, in order to identify Quickly any spike and isolate it.
Madrid fears that Health will grant it an intermediate phase of de-escalation like Barcelona
The final decision will be made this afternoon. Later, an appearance by the minister, Salvador Illa, is expected, in which he reveals what happens to the Autonomous Communities that have asked to jump from level
Do not go to second homes
This Friday the alternative was opened, the intermediate path between phase 0 and 1. Barcelona wanted for itself a kind of stage “0 advanced” or 0.5, which is what will finally be applied in the two big cities. The Government prefers to speak of phase 0 with some relief measures, since the de-escalation plan does not contemplate intermediate stations. But the truth is that already last week, Health opted for a model of its own for the Basque Country, a kind of “phase 0.90”, with all the characteristics of stage 1, except the opening of libraries, museums, gyms or cultural shows. .
Ayuso’s Executive believes that phase 0.5 is “an invention”, an “improvised botch” that generates “confusion and uncertainty” for citizens
In this phase 0.5, which will operate from Monday May 18 in Madrid and Barcelona, the opening of shops in up to 400 square meters without the need for an appointment and with a capacity of 30%, libraries (for book loans) or museums (limited capacity and no cultural activities). Cultural shows will have restrictions: less than 30 people indoors and less than 200 people outdoors. The open-air markets will return, although with limited capacity. The wakes will be allowed: 10 people maximum in closed spaces and 15 if they are open.
But, at this advanced stage 0, social gatherings will be prohibited and visits to family members or the opening of terraces at 50%, nor will trips to second residences within the same community be authorized.
The regional government does not agree. He believes that an intermediate station generates “confusion and uncertainty”, “is a invention that the citizen can see as an improvised fudge “and supposes” a grievance between communities. “Madrid appeals to” individual and social responsibility “, which”it has no middle ground“nor can” incur a directed state paternalism. “The Autonomous Cabinet recalls that Sánchez and Sanidad always spoke of four phases, and not of intermediate stages. The Executive of PP and Citizens insists that Madrid is ready to enter the phase 1 with all its consequences and contains “incongruities”, such as the prohibition of terraces or social gatherings and the authorization of wakes or shows with restrictions. It also rejects that the situation in the region is analogous to that of Barcelona, since Madrid is achieving a “most noticeable improvement“in the pandemic data.
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