COVID-19: Get Ready For Another Total Lockdown
Experts and health workers ask the government to restrict mobility as much as possible in the face of the uncontrolled advance of the pandemic.
While they are not calling for the kind of home confinement we saw back in March, they see something needs to happen as the situation with the spread of the virus is extremely serious and will only worsen if nothing is done.
The evolution of the pandemic in the Valencian Community, totally uncontrolled at the moment, raises a new tightening of restrictive measures, including “home confinement.” In fact, the president of the Generalitat Ximo Puig “sees it as probable.”
The experts and health professionals of the province warn that the hospitals’ situation will be agonizing during the coming weeks. Therefore, they consider that mobility should be limited as much as possible, even reaching confinement that would not be as strict as in March.
The professor of Community Nursing, Preventive Medicine, Public Health and History of Science of the UA, José Ramón Martínez Riera, assures that the last days’ data are exceeding the worst forecasts and that we are paying the consequences of wanting to save Christmas.
The Community Nursing Association president proposes a home confinement of about two weeks that had less restrictive measures than that of March. Previously, he explains, a rigorous analysis should be carried out of what characteristics this confinement should have depending on the pandemic’s situation.
The current measures, says Martínez Riera, are “bread for today and hunger for tomorrow.” In fact, he does not rule out that the authorities finally adopt a confinement before the evolution of the pandemic.
Regarding the slowness in the vaccination process, Martínez Riera points out that “all the mechanisms must be activated to accelerate this process.” One of the measures that would favor progression was to offer nurses to double their work shifts so that they could carry out vaccinations outside of their working hours. “Specific spaces and times have to be created to vaccinate seven days a week throughout the day,” he explains.
For his part, the UMH Professor of Medicine, Félix Gutiérrez, advocates applying drastic measures to restrict mobility because”W “the situation is extremely serious.” We have to anticipate a scenario that can be dramatic in which health services can be collapsed and where the quality of care could be at risk.”
Gutiérrez adds that there are non-essential activities and social interactions that continue to occur and consider that home confinement is the strictest measure to be reached. Of course, he believes that between the current situation and total isolation, there is still “a small margin.” The high number of daily positives per test means that community transmission is uncontrolled, and he believes that the number of actual cases is much higher.
From the CESM Medical Union, they assure that measures must be taken because “it has been late again” and the situation “is getting out of hand.” His general secretary in Alicante, María José Gimeno, asks that a confinement be applied in which you can only go to work, go out to take the air for time slots, and go to school. She assures that in the coming days, the situation in the hospitals will be agonizing.
She remembers that there are already centers that have had to reconvert their spaces to enable hospital beds. “We are very concerned,” says Gimeno.
Over the weekend, a hoax circulated on social media about a lockdown being announced today by the Generalitat Valenciana in which the home confinement in the Community will be announced. Sources in the government say that this is not the case.
Given the current pressure on the hospitals in the region, including Alcoy at Alcoy Today, we expect some new rules to be announced sooner rather than later.
