The Generalitat has been the first autonomous government that has implemented severe measures to stop the pandemic in this sixth wave, given the high speed of spread of the omicron variant in recent days. Waiting for what happens in the meeting of the regional presidents with the central government, convened today, the Generalitat, based on the report of the Covid-19 Scientific Advisory Committee and the organism Procicat, has approved measures for a situation that the ‘president’, Pere Aragonès, qualifies as “critical.” It should be noted that, this time, the advice of expert scientists has been made public and that the Government has taken a step forward based on its resolutions, some of which (such as the forecast of a short-term total confinement, as has occurred in the Netherlands) have not yet entered a list of provisions that the same executive has described as “necessary, essential and reasonable” pending the decision of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) in relation to the restriction of fundamental rights such as the implementation of a curfew or the limitation of family reunions.
The Generalitat’s measures also have a political component, because Aragonès has declared that they will demand that the Government take them from other territories as well, in a reference to the lack of agreement at the state level and the possibility that certain regions, such as the Madrid, refuse similar measures. The Executive of Pedro Sánchez has already responded that he does not intend to apply the same restrictions throughout Spain, because he does not see it necessary and because he does not have the powers to do so. It should be remembered that, at present, the responsibility for these actions falls on the communities and that the umbrella with which the Government faced the first waves was based on decrees subsequently annulled by the Constitutional Court. Although the different responses of regional executives can cause some confusion, as well as when there are contradictory judicial decisions, the epidemiological situation in each community is different, and what is justified in a place with a very high incidence may be less so in another with less affectation. The diversity of measures in the different territories does not have to be negative if it is based on solid arguments. It is a very different thing to turn this issue into one more reason for a political fray with the sole objective of wearing down the adversary, or avoiding adopting unpopular measures on the eve of Christmas.
If at the beginning of the month, the accumulated incidence at 14 days was 248 and last Friday Spain was at 511, this Monday it reached 609, in an unusual advance of the pandemic that, in Catalonia, has grown in terms of infected by 100% in just one week. Transmission is already community-based, uncontrolled and sustained, which has repercussions on hospital tension, although, thanks to the vaccination campaign, the figures for deaths or admissions in the ucis of a year ago are not reached. The data therefore corroborate the need to adopt new restrictions in Catalonia. There have been criticisms, logical, from the sectors most affected, such as restaurants and nightlife. They get to this point very worn out and it would not be fair to reload the great weight of stopping the pandemic without offering compensation. That is why the introduction of economic measures to alleviate the crisis is urgent, as were those from the covid fund in its day. It is also necessary that the population, once again, in moments of collective fatigue after almost two years of the pandemic, become aware of the seriousness and contribute their individual responsibility to stop this wave.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com