Members of the royal guard in Madrid
Madrid has reluctantly agreed to come under a city-wide perimeter lockdown after arguing with the national government over measures to control the spread of Covid-19.
The row has been widely criticised by medics and politicians, who say it has hindered attempts to save lives in Europe’s worst-hit city.
Minutes after Spain’s government published an order on Thursday morning imposing restrictions on Madrid that would see it cordoned off from the rest of the country, the region’s leader threatened to defy the new rules.
“This plan destroys Madrid without any scientific criteria,” Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of the Madrid region, said in an early-morning radio interview.
Later on Thursday morning in the Madrid regional assembly Ms Díaz Ayuso performed a U-turn, saying that her administration would apply the law, but she would challenge the government order in court.
The conservative-led local authority is worried about the impact on livelihoods in a city famous for its bars, restaurants and bustle of tourists in normal times.
According to the health ministry order, all regional governments in Spain must stop people entering or leaving any town or city with an incidence of more than 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past two weeks, a positivity rate in tests above 10 per cent, and 35 per cent Covid occupancy of hospital ICUs.
14 day covid cumulative caseload per 100,000 population of Paris and Madrid
Exceptions to the mobility ban include commutes to work, necessary family-related journeys and other essential business. Additional restrictions for areas surpassing these limits include a six-person limit on social gatherings, and bars to run table service only at 50 per cent capacity.
Currently, the city of Madrid and nine towns within the capital region are the only areas in Spain where the criteria would apply.
Residents are not confined to their homes and can circulate freely within their own area although parks are closed and bars and restaurants have to operate with limited opening hours and seating capacity.
The Madrid region reported 52 deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours on Thursday, and is currently accounting for well over one-third of new cases nationwide, despite representing only 14 per cent of Spain’s population.
Two weeks of talks between the Spanish and Madrid governments on how to reduce Covid transmission in the region sparked a bitter row.
UK compared to Spain and France
Experts are concerned that infection has now escaped control, leading to a potentially devastating impact on the local population and the country as a whole due to the high levels of mobility around the capital.
Madrid’s health department was criticised after announcing this week that it would no longer test asymptomatic close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 patients, saying that self-isolation was the priority while also stressing that the region had boosted hospital capacity.
Daniel López-Acuña, a former director of the WHO’s Health Action in Crises department, said described the move as “incoherent”.
“We mustn’t wait for the virus in the hospital. We have to get out there and seek it in the streets to identify and break the chain of contagion. You do this with tracers and primary healthcare. Madrid, unfortunately, has done the exact opposite, and that has a cost in terms of lives,” Dr López-Acuña said.
Last week Spain’s Socialist party Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Ms Díaz Ayuso of the conservative Popular Party announced that they would cooperate on the battle against Madrid’s Covid second wave.
The regional government began to apply mobility restrictions on 45 healthcare districts, but within the capital few people know where these boundaries lie and the local police are believed to have only handed out 100 or so fines.
On Tuesday the regional government’s chief spokesman said that an agreement had been reached to impose the perimeter lockdown on the entire city of Madrid, subject to approval by all of Spain’s regions at a meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
Coronavirus Spain Spotlight Chart — Cases default
However, Madrid then claimed the agreement was not final and joined several other regions in voting against the plan, leading Health Minister Salvador Illa to announce that he was imposing the rules in any case as a majority of regions had voted in favour.
Other regions in Spain, including La Rioja, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia, have recently applied mobility restrictions with lower levels of infection.
Alba Vergès, Catalonia’s health minister, said her region would not be applying the new rules as it already had much stricter standards in place.
“For weeks we have been demanding stronger action from the Madrid region, which is putting its own citizens and other at risk. It’s very sad that Madrid continues to fail to take action or show any willingness to do so,” Ms Vergès said after Wednesday’s meeting.
Spain was placed under a state of emergency from March 15 to June 21, during which time the national government exercised centralised control of health policy. Since the regions regained their powers, success in battling Covid-19 has been extremely uneven; Madrid’s 14-day cumulative case rate per 100,000 inhabitants stands at 735, while Galicia is on 104.
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