‘Let’s hope we don’t need to use it (curfew). Moreover, once we have immunized the most vulnerable groups, without the risk of increased deaths and hospital admissions, we will be able to ease the current restrictions. ‘ This is what the President of the Government said, Francina Armengol, during a visit yesterday with the Secretary of State for Health, Silvia Calzón, to the new microbiology laboratory at Son Llàtzer hospital, in which 2.3 million euros have been invested.
The president refused to respond to statements made the day before by the first vice-president of the central government, Carmen Calvo. “I don’t want to get into controversy”, she said. The vice-president assured that the Autonomous Communities that had requested the extension of the state of emergency (including the Balearic Islands) were doing so because “they had failed to protect their citizens” during the pandemic.
Although Armengol reiterated her position that the Autonomous Communities should have the possibility of using the curfew “as an instrument if necessary”, she acknowledged that they have asked the state government for “some specificity” in this respect. “Hopefully we won’t have to use it, either the curfew or any other restrictions,” she added. The curfew will be abolished on 9th May with the end of the state of alarm.
However, Armengol pointed out that the non-renewal of the state of alarm is due to the Government’s uncertainty about being able to obtain the necessary political support to move this initiative forward in the Congress of Deputies. That is why she urged political parties that do not support the deferral to reconsider.
Nor did Armengol want to forget the favorable rulings of the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands on the restrictions implemented by the Government during the pandemic, rejecting the appeals lodged by the sectors most affected by them. The Balearic Islands “have always had the legal margin to take appropriate decisions” that have been backed by the courts, she argued.
Questioned on the same subject, Secretary of State Silvia Calzón also did not want to fuel the controversy and insisted that the precautionary measures not be eased. “We trust that between now and May the situation will be more hopeful thanks to the individual responsibility of citizens and the collaboration between the different administrations,” she said, anticipating a “slow and gradual” relaxation of the restrictions in the coming months.
Madrid excludes the priority to supply vaccines to tourist communities.
The Secretary of State for Health, Silvia Calzón, insisted yesterday that the vaccination strategy follows “ethical principles”. Her comment was made after being questioned about the possibility of giving more vaccines to tourist communities after vaccinating the most at-risk areas of the population.
The Ministerial Representative emphasized that the “main objective” of the Ministry is “to achieve the end of this nightmare together. We are talking about a pandemic, about lives,” she emphasized.
Calzón also reminded that the vaccination strategy has been approved by consensus and is mandatory. ‘It is founded on very solid ethical principles,’ she noted. The renovation of the laboratory of the Son Llàtzer hospital, that Calzón visited yesterday with the main political and health authorities of the islands, cost 2.3 million euros. It enabled the implementation of an automation system for transporting and managing laboratory samples that improves traceability, optimization of resources and efficiency.