Sánchez considers proposing to the autonomies restrictions that experts recommend from the beginning of the month

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will propose to the autonomous communities in the Conference next Wednesday a series of restrictions that the experts of the Ministry of Health and the territorial councils They have been raising since the beginning of the month and that they agreed, for the last time, last Friday, within the Alerts Presentation, Preparedness and Response Plans. El Periódico de España, a newspaper that belongs to the same editorial group as this medium, has accessed the text of the meeting five days ago, which is what they will work on in the Senate in just over 24 hours, according to sources from a Regional executive.

Spain entered that same Friday at very high risk for coronavirus with a cumulative 14-day incidence of 511 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, thus crossing the level 4 risk threshold. The data for this Monday can no longer be worse: the autonomous communities have notified the Ministry of Health 79,704 new cases of covid-19, 9,993 of them diagnosed in the last 24 hours. The cumulative incidence in the last 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants stands at 609,38, compared to 511.00 on Friday. In this Monday’s report they have been added 85 new deaths, compared to 103 last Monday and there are already autonomies, such as Catalonia or Melilla, with an ICU occupation of almost 30%, that is, with very high risk.

As stated in the document agreed on Friday in the Conference, which brings together experts from all administrations, the restrictions mainly affect the restaurants and bars, given the current worrying context, as recognized by the experts themselves. They affect the “high growth rate” of the omicron variant and they emphasize that “the great increase in cases” it is already leading to a “gradual increase in admissions” in hospitals, and more specifically, in ICUs.

Thus, in the event that the community reaches alert level 3, restaurants and bars must reduce its capacity indoors in the middle and prevent more than six people per table. Drinks at the bar will be prohibited and at 11:00 pm they will have to close. If the autonomy has reached alert level 4, in which Spain is already in by number of infections, the interiors will be closed directly.

They will also suffer the consequences of the unbridled growth of the new variant, much more contagious, the premises of nightlife. Both in alert level 3 as in 4 they will have to be closed.

Also, massive eventss, so typical of the Christmas season, will see their attendance reduced to 50%, although, if the maximum alert rate is reached, they will simply not take place. This counts for horseback riding or end of the year parties.

On the other hand, the Public Health Commission has decided this Tuesday that people vaccinated with the complete schedule and are close to a positive case, they will not need to perform a home quarantine 10 days but, in any case, should limit their activities outside the home.

Thus, as agreed, “they must limit your activities to essentials, reducing their social interactions as much as possible, scrupulously follow preventive measures such as the use of masks and closely monitor the possible appearance of compatible symptoms “.

Conference of Presidents: Five Days Later

The following sequence reveals a clear slowdown in decision-making: on Friday, the presentation met; on Saturday, Sánchez called the Conference of Presidents; on Sunday, the chief executive intervened (without admitting questions from the press) to advance that there will be measures (he did not say which ones); Wednesday will be the Conference in the Senate, in telematic format; on Friday, Christmas Eve; next Saturday, Christmas.

The slowdown becomes clamorous when you notice a previous document agreed in the Alert Report, dated December 3. Already then the experts put on the table a series of recommendations, but the measures, including the strictest ones, have not yet arrived.

Measures that are largely repeated in the document of the 17th, from the same Presentation, but with a nuance: to address the family reunions typical of Christmas Eve, Christmas or First of the Year, which are more difficult to manage because they are private, the experts become ambiguous.

Advise limit social contacts “in the days prior to the celebration of family gatherings” and the cancellation of “company lunches and dinners”, but they do not define how many guests could meet. They leave it in the hands of the authorities.

However, the Alert Report did recommend on December 3, before the Constitution Bridge -that is, when the rise in the number of infections was significant, but was not close to the current explosion- adopt a series of measures in the face of the unstoppable advance of the omicron variant, including the performance of antigen tests and yes, the limitation of the number of diners at Christmas dinners.

In this document, to which El Periódico de España has also had access, the technicians stipulated that at alert level 3, which Spain has already exceeded, family gatherings should have a maximum of 10 attendees and two stable coexistence groups. In the case of company dinners, it was suggested that the maximum number of participants be 6. At level 4, of very high risk, the one reached last Friday, the first draft advised a maximum of 6 attendees and meetings of a group of stable coexistence in family gatherings.

And a very important aspect. The draft of last day 3 recommended, in a general way, that attendees of family meetings carry out a self-test of previous antigen, but taking into account that a positive result in these tests must be confirmed later with a Diagnostic Test for Active Infection (PDIA, that is, PCR or antigen test in a health center). Remember that a negative test result does not exclude infection.

“This should be taken into account in a special way if there are vulnerable people, with chronic diseases and in the case of people who return to their family home (students and workers)”, indicated the first text. Nothing like that appears in the recommendations of the 17th.

The urgency of the second document

The differences, however, begin in titles and starts. The one with day 3, entitled “Proposal of Public Health measures against covid-19 for the celebration of the Christmas holidays 2021-2022”, begins like this: “Currently in Spain there is a significant proportion of the population correctly vaccinated with at least two doses, however , the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 disease cases continues to rise. “

The one with day 17 is entitled “Need for implementation urgent of measures to control the epidemiological situation “and this is its start:” In recent weeks, the incidence of COVID-19 has experienced a very significant increase throughout the national territory and is currently at values ​​greater than 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants with a high growth rate “.

At the beginning of the month, the incidence at 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants in Spain stood in 248 cases, the hospital occupancy rate (on the floor) was almost 9% (4,262 patients admitted for covid) and the ICU occupancy rate, 8.84% with 814 admitted patients. In some communities, such as Catalonia, it was already emerging. Today, with the incidence above 600 casesOnly Catalonia has no less than 385 patients with covid in its critical units; the occupation of their beds is close to 30%, maximum risk.

This same Monday, the regional presidents of Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community, Galicia and the Basque Country, have advanced that they will transfer to the Chief Executive at the Conference of Presidents the need to resume the obligation to wear a mask outdoors.

The first text, a draft; the second, a working text

According to the description made by the Ministry of Health itself, the Report on Alerts and Preparedness and Response Plans (dependent on the Public Health Commission) is the management and monitoring body of the National Early Warning and Rapid Response System (SIAPR), which is made up of a network of regional liaison centers, coordinated by the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES), directed by Fernando Simón. It allows permanent and rapid communication of risk situations for the health of the population and the coordination of response measures.

“Vaccination, vaccination and vaccination” It is the formula that Minister Carolina Darias repeats in the face of the increase in cases, insisting, as in past weeks, that no new measures were necessary. He appealed to the high immunization rates since the hospital pressure still did not present worrying data.

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The Government was thus ignoring that first draft of the Alert Report, which has been circulating for days and which, in addition to a series of general hygiene measures (mask, distance, ventilation …), offered very specific recommendations in high-risk scenarios and very high to which Spain is already reaching.

From the Ministry of Health, consulted by this newspaper, they assure that that first draft was just that, a draft. They add that what that first text contained, with respect to what the Alerts Report finally concludes – the document that ‘El Periódico de España’ has exclusively accessed and which will finally be the one that will be taken to the Conference of Presidents – could have differences, as it has finally been.