19th March 2024
Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa
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Health Minister recommends confinement for all Madrid – but partial lockdown extended to 8 other areas

Latest: Coronavirus in Spain figures (20 Oct)

The regional government of Madrid led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso has decided to extend its existing partial lockdown to eight other healthcare areas, in order to combat the further spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19).

The regional government has also recommended to avoid all non-essential movement across the region. The Spanish Health Minister, Salvador Illa, however, has said that he had recommended confinement measures for whole region of Madrid.

The new areas are:

Panaderas (Fuenlabrada), Doctor Trueta and Miguel Servet (Alcorcón), García Noblejas (San Blas), Vicálvaro-Artilleros (Vicálvaro), Orcasitas (Usera), Rafael Alberti and Campo de La Paloma (Puente de Vallecas).

The measures were announced on Friday morning by Madrid’s deputy health chief, Antonio Zapatero, who said, ‘Or main concern is slowing the virus. We also recommend that all non-essential travel be avoided [across the whole region].’

Around the same time that the new measures were being announced, however, the Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa also held a press conference. He said he had called upon the Madrid authorities to confine all areas with a Coronavirus incidence rate above 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Madrid had already imposed partial lockdown measures on nearly one million citizens living in 37 areas since Monday – including neighbourhoods in the city of Madrid itself – in order to try and stop the spread of the virus. The measures were announced last Friday by Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

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Residents of the 37 areas, mainly densely populated, low-income neighbourhoods in the south of Madrid, are only allowed to leave their areas to go to work, seek medical care or take their children to school. The measures will remain in place for at least 14 days.

All bars and restaurants in the 37 areas have also had to reduce their capacity to 50%. Residents affected are allowed to move around freely inside their zone but no-one from outside is allowed in. Last weekend saw a number of protests against the new restrictions in the areas affected in Madrid, with citizens claiming that the measures were ‘discriminatory’.

Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa
Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa

Social gatherings of more than 6 people are now also banned in the entire Madrid region, down from 10 currently, as part of the new measures.

On Wednesday, the vice-president of the Madrid regional government, Ignacio Aguado, also called for ‘urgent’ logistical support from the Spanish military to help with disinfection and testing for Coronavirus in the areas of Madrid that are currently in partial lockdown.

‘We have decided to formally request the urgent logistical support of the military to set up tents, carry out tests and disinfections in each of the areas subject to restrictions,’ said Aguado at a press conference on Wednesday.

Aguado also said that the regional government had requested 222 National Police and Guardia Civil officers to help enforce the partial lockdowns.

In addition to police and military support, Madrid has also called for an urgent ‘modification of regulations’ in order to hire 300 doctors from other regions of Spain.

On Friday, Díaz Ayuso tweeted that the measures being taken by her regional government were ‘adequate’.

‘More than confining Madrid, our mission is to help people,’ she wrote. ‘The measures we are taking are adequate.’

Click here for all previous reports on: Coronavirus in Spain

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