Catalan doctors and Quim Torra criticize that the Generalitat does not increase restrictions against the coronavirus

Despite the fact that the Minister of the Interior, Miquel Sà mper, referred last Sunday, in an interview in Rac1, to the possibility of advancing the curfew on the last night of the year (set at one in the morning) or to an extension to all of Catalonia of the extraordinary confinement decreed in the regions of the Cerdanya and the RipollÚs, where the premises of the restoration and the culture are closed, the Generalitat decided yesterday to maintain the measures in force from December 21 to January 11.

The government spokeswoman, Meritxell Budó, has defended today that Catalonia is the autonomous community with the “most restrictive” measures to prevent Covid and that the limitations that were imposed for these three weeks with Christmas celebrations are “very drastic”. In her argument, the also counselor of Presidency has obviated that, in other regions, the curfew of the New Years Eve will start before or the maximum number of people gathered to dismiss the year has been limited to six, while in Catalonia they may be ten.

However, the high pressure for care in hospitals and the indices that show the daily evolution of the pandemic in the community have set off alarms in the health sector. The president of the College of Physicians of Barcelona, Jaume Padrós, has warned of “a very complicated January” if mobility is not reduced even more and therefore has called for “a total confinement for 15 days”. For his part, the head of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology of the Hospital ClÃnic, Antoni trilla, has acknowledged this morning that he was waiting for “more forceful” orders from the regional Executive in order to avoid the classic New Year’s Eve festive meetings.

Pessimism

Other authorized voices have joined the line of dissent with the action of the Generalitat. The head of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at Hospital Vall d’Hebron, Magda Campins, the infectologist at the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital Oriol Mitjà , the doctor and researcher at the University of Leicester (UK) Salvador Macip or the doctor in Physics and researcher from the Rovira i Virgili University Ã??lex Arenas They have also unambiguously called for tougher rules to combat the pandemic and have shown their pessimism about the effects of social interaction during the holidays.

But, beyond the health sector, one of the most notable reactions regarding the Government’s decision has been that of former president Quim Torra, who also unchecked yesterday, through Twitter , of the decision of the Cabinet that commanded until three months ago: “It tastes bad to me, but I cannot share it. With the current welfare pressure, social restriction measures are necessary. Now we cannot play it.” Less than seven weeks before the scheduled date of the Parliamentary elections (February 14), that the Health Department and the acting president of the Generalitat are in the hands of Esquerra Republicana, there remains any hint of contradiction to the comment of the leader disqualified by the Supreme Court last September.