Date Published: 02/11/2020
ARCHIVED - Asturias asks for permission to impose full lockdown for two weeks
ARCHIVED ARTICLE The national Government maintains that it is not contemplating a national lockdown at the moment
The escalation in the number of new cases and increase in pressure on hospital services due to COVID-19 has resulted in some of Spain’s 17 Autonomous Regions regions proposing a tightening of the restrictions currently being applied if the epidemiological evolution in their regions does not improve soon.
In Asturias, the regional government has announced that it will formally ask the government to allow it to establish a home confinement of 15 days, a measure that the president of the community, Adrián Barbón, has described as "vital for the control of the pandemic."
"Our biggest concern is the growth in hospitalizations," the regional president said, adding that this is a growth level "that did not occur even in the first wave of the pandemic." "If we continue at this rate and are not be able to control its expansion, it could lead us to a borderline hospital situation." With the aim of avoiding this, therefore, the Crisis Committee has evaluated a resolution that will be signed by the Minister of Health and that will be published tomorrow so that it can take effect this Wednesday; with a single premise: "avoid the mobility and interaction of people".
The region intends to close all hostelry businesses and those considered non-essential as well as bringing forward its curfew to 22.00.
It thus becomes the first community to formally request the Ministry of Health for permission to return to a full home confinement, similar to that imposed during the spring.
His counterpart in Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, also announced this Sunday that his region would be requesting additional restrictive measures shortly.
The region has witnessed rioting right across the weekend.
In Andalusia, which has reported the worst week to date of the entire pandemic, the vice president, Juan Marín, sent a similar message, saying: "I am very afraid that if this rate of evolution continues, much tougher decisions will have to be made and it is better to do it now, than later "he said.
However, the national Minister for Health, Salvador Illa, has ruled out on Monday that the national government has any intention of decreeing nationwide home confinements in the coming days and said that he trusts that the measures included in the new state of alarm will be able to control the evolution of the pandemic.
The minister said that he has asked the regional health authorities "not to enter into a kind of competition to see who takes the toughest measure", his comments coinciding with the request of the Government of Asturias, to impose a home confinement for 15 days within their region.
“We don't foresee the need for a full lockdown. We are neither working on it nor anticipating it. We think that with the range of measures that are at the disposal of the authorities of the Autonomous Communities to be able to act, that this is enough ”, the minister assured in a telematic conference.
Later on, Spanish Health Minsiter Salvador Illa, announced that he would be meeting with the Asturian Government by videoconference on Tuesday lunchtime, again ruling out a confinement, stating that the current state of emergency does not permit total confinement.