20,000 people sign Spanish petition criticising government’s ‘politics-only’ Covid-19 rules

Lockdown measures have been slow to come in because of squabbles between local and national government

Credit: REUTERS/Sergio Perez

Health experts in Spain have united in despair at the country’s political class, which they say is failing to put scientific criteria above partisan power struggles in the battle to stem Europe’s worst Covid-19 second wave.

In the midst of an ongoing squabble between Spain’s Left-wing national government and the conservative administration in Madrid over lockdown measures in the capital, 55 medical associations have launched a joint manifesto demanding that Spanish politicians start cooperating to develop science-based policies.

The Madrid region was forced last week by Spain’s health ministry to place the capital under a perimeter lockdown, but the local administration claims the restriction will not be effective and has asked a court to suspend it as an “invasion of its competences” that will do “irreparable damage” to the economy.

But health experts in Spain say the Madrid regional government was being irresponsible in acting too slowly against a spiralling rise in cases.

“In Madrid we have seen a disgraceful spectacle. Many of the decisions that have been taken have no scientific basis, and action has come too late after the signs were clear earlier that the situation was no under control,” said Jesús Molina, secretary of the Spanish Society for Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Hygiene, one of the associations behind the manifesto.

14 day covid cumulative caseload per 100,000 population of Paris and Madrid

As the caseload and pressure on hospitals rose in Madrid last month without the regional government taking decisive action, Spain’s government came up with limits that would automatically trigger perimeter lockdowns, including a cumulative 14-day caseload of 500 positives per 100,000 inhabitants and a positivity rate in tests above 10 per cent.

More than 22,000 people signed the manifesto in the first 24 hours after it was posted on an online petition site.

“These limits are lax and arbitrary,” Dr Molina told the Cadena Ser radio station, noting that other countries have taken stricter steps long before reaching such high levels of infection.

The Czech Republic has declared a state of emergency and closed secondary schools, among other measures, with a lower level of infection than Spain.

Healthcare workers have protested cuts and privatisation of the health system in Madrid

Credit: Va­ctor Lerena/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

France’s maximum alert level is triggered when the infection rate in an area reaches 250 per 100,000, a limit that saw Marseille close bars and restaurants last week, with Paris due to shut bars on Tuesday.

Under the rules imposed on Madrid, which has a 14-day incidence of 648 per 100,000 inhabitants, bars can still open until 11pm with 50 per cent capacity.

Among the 10 points of the manifesto entitled “In healthcare, you rule but you don’t understand”, the associations that together represent 170,000 healthcare professionals in Spain ask for a national protocol to deal with the Covid crisis, drawn from “exclusively scientific fundamentals, without the least political interference or pressure”.