Madrid reduces the maximum number at Christmas meetings from ten to six..

 

The Community maintains the curfew between 00.00 and 6.00 except on 24 and 31, which is shortened from 1.30 to 6.00

 

Madrid has returned to the level of extreme risk, which the Ministry of Health and the communities agreed to set at 250 in terms of cumulative incidence at 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants.The community stood at 262 this Thursday, the highest in the Peninsula according to data from the ministry; On November 20, also with this statistic, it was the region with the least incidence of the peninsular territory. With the entry back into that threshold, and with a slight rebound that hospitals have been reflecting for more than a week, the Executive of Isabel Díaz Ayuso has decided to tighten some of the restrictions that were already in place. For the time being, the Community is going to keep the number of diners who can meet at Christmas at six. And, as confirmed by the Minister of Health Enrique Ruiz Escudero, the modification or hardening of the measures based on the evolution of the pandemic is not ruled out.

The agreement between the autonomies and the Ministry of Health was a limit of 10 people from two coexistence centers at most, but the change in trend in the region, the one hardest hit by the coronavirus since the first wave, forces the regional government to take decisions that reduce the possibility of virus transmission. Thus, the Christmas plan is modified for December 24, 25, 31 and January 1 and 6. “Only six people and a maximum of two groups of cohabitants can meet. In recent days the General Directorate of Public Health has detected outbreaks associated with social and family gatherings, it is where more infections are occurring now ”, explained the counselor at the press conference this Friday to update the epidemiological situation in the region.

This Thursday, Madrid had notified 6,879 new cases in the last week and in hospitals there are 1,389 patients admitted to acute care units and 300 critical patients in ICUs - an occupation of 9% and 68% respectively, only of coronavirus patients. In addition, the specialists recall, since the first wave ended, the centers once again received patients with other pathologies other than covid, so that the occupation now in many health centers is practically complete between some patients and others.

Given this, Ruiz Escudero has insisted on "the use of the mask both in public and in private." They should be used, he recalled, "in Christmas family gatherings, because the risk of contagion increases when you interact with people who are not living together, and ensure good ventilation." He has also referred to the hotel industry: “There it is essential that these principles are met, having the mask and only removing it at the time you eat and drink. We ask for the commitment and support of the sector, the capacity must be respected and avoid consuming standing up ”.

The curfew, for the moment, will not be modified: it remains between 00:00 and 6:00 except on 24 and 31, which will be between 1.30 and 6:00. "And the Community will remain perimeter from December 23 to January 6, although it will be possible to enter and leave to visit relatives and friends", has qualified the counselor. Although, until this Friday, they do not know how to control these trips from Madrid to other communities. "We do not have that information, we hope that the Ministry will tell us how it will be carried out," Ruiz Escudero has specified.

Vaccination in the Community of Madrid

The vaccination campaign in Spain will start on December 27, as announced by the Ministry of Health. The Community of Madrid will administer the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine to 65,000 people in risk groups in January, some 20,000 a week, starting with the elderly and nursing home workers and then front-line health personnel, although the number of doses that will reach the region is unknown.

"Forty nursing teams, made up of two nurses, will go daily to senior centers" and the goal is that "in three weeks" the 65,000 people planned have received the first dose, and then begin to administer the second, he said. the general director of Public Health, Elena Andradas, before the Health Commission of the Madrid Assembly, in statements collected by Efe.