The Spanish Ministry of Health registered on Friday 7-A some 1,895 infections of covid-19 diagnosed in the last 24 hours.
By:
EFE
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Spain will be able to avoid a new massive confinement, the director of Public Health and Environment of the World Health Organization (WHO), María Neira, told EFE this Saturday, who recognizes that there is “a second moment of crisis” in that country with the increase in covid-19 cases in recent weeks.
The Spanish Ministry of Health registered 1,895 infections of covid-19 diagnosed in the last 24 hours yesterday, which represented a new maximum of daily cases, up to 314,362 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the latest official data, ahead of the United Kingdom (309,763), so far the western European country most affected by the pandemic.
However, the decision to order a second massive confinement is not currently on the mind of the health authorities of Spain and the WHO supports it, since, according to Neira, it would have to be justified by a “very alarming” epidemiological situation.
“And now these circumstances do not exist. There are many places in the country where the situation has been controlled,” says the WHO Director of Public Health in the interview.
“Today we think that it would not be necessary and that the important thing is to try to avoid it as much as possible due to the economic and mental health consequences, and because basic health services are no longer provided. You have to be very strategic and tactical in terms of applying these measures, “says Neira, although if it were one day,” that step will have to be taken.
According to the infectious disease specialist, what is happening in Spain is “a reappearance and an upturn of cases in some specific places, it is not again a sustained and generalized community transmission.”
“But I think there is also a semantic issue, because what is being talked about is perhaps a second moment of crisis,” he clarified.
MASSIVE TESTING, TRACKING OF SUSPICIOUS CASES AND QUARANTENS
Neira recalled that the WHO continues to recommend basic public health measures, such as mass tests, tracking of suspected cases and their contacts, and quarantines to contain the spread of the virus since they “work”.
“Everything possible must be done to avoid this type of indiscriminate measures, which apply to an entire nation, because other solutions can be tailored according to the epidemiological situation and as adapted as possible to the local situation. These almost surgical, scalpel measures can be applied instead of having to do amputation surgery, “he said.
DAILY CASES AGAIN IN CATALONIA
Although the level of infections was decreasing, Catalonia once again registered a new rebound with 1,275 new positives for coronavirus in the last 24 hours and three deaths. The total number of infected since the beginning of the pandemic amounts to 105,566 in that region, according to data provided by the Health Department of the regional government.
People who died from this disease and its consequences total 12,815, according to the same sources.
Figures that the head of the Covid-19 treatment unit in one of the most important hospitals in Barcelona, Hospital del Mar, Dr. Robert Güerri, predicts that they will increase in autumn, when temperatures and people drop is enclosed indoors. Then the transmission “will be more effective,” he said.
In Madrid, another of the regions with a higher number of cases, 95% of nightlife venues closed last night in protest against the measures decreed by the regional government that forces them to close earlier than usual, according to data from the organizers of this initiative that will last all weekend.
In addition to nightlife, outbreaks in the Madrid community are associated with the social sphere, such as the one reported today by the health authorities with several positives in the same building.
EUROPEAN RESTRICTIONS
The increase in coronavirus outbreaks, 580 according to the latest data from the Spanish Ministry of Health, has caused almost all the countries of the European Schengen area to have issued recommendations against traveling to certain areas of the country and many have even imposed restrictions on control the arrival of travelers or tourists from Spain.
For now, only four countries – Luxembourg, Poland, Romania and Sweden – have not advised not to travel to Spain or certain Spanish regions for fear of the spread of the coronavirus, according to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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