There are some idiotic rumours going around that Spain is set to go back to full lockdown. Some irresponsible types have even suggested that their “insider” knowledge has set a date of “September 18”. Which is simply ridiculous for a number of reasons, including the massive work that has been going on to target and strategise confinements by region and even town, and of course the utter impossibility of setting a date for such action, let alone one more than a month in the future. Silly people.
The director of Public Health and the Environment of the World Health Organisation, María Neira, believes that Spain will be able to avoid any mass confinements, at least in the foreseeable future, because, although she recognises that there currently is “a second moment of crisis”, this decision would have to be justified by a “very alarming” epidemiological situation.
And she, according to an interview with main spanish news agency Efe, considers that, right now, these circumstances do not exist: “when you see how the Canary Islands are, how the Balearic Islands are, Asturias, Galicia … there are many places in the country where the situation has been under control” says Neira.
“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 could no longer [continue to be] provided. You have to be very strategic and tactical in terms of applying these measures”, she points out, but adds that if it is ever necessary to do so, that steps may well have to be taken once again. For now, we continue to focus on basic everyday strategies to try to keep society open, the economy functioning and most importantly, people healthy.
