Six districts of Madrid, confined due to the high incidence of COVID-19

USPA NEWS - Madrid woke up this Monday with restrictions on the mobility of its inhabitants in 37 areas of six districts in the South of the capital. The City Council has deployed more than 200 Local Police officers to monitor compliance with the restrictions, which allow walking on the street but prohibit leaving the district of residence except to work, go to the doctor or perform essential activities. On Sunday, several hundred residents of the six affected districts demonstrated against this new confinement and this Monday, the first working day of the week, many affected complained of the difficulties they find to lead a normal life.

The Madrid City Council has designed a device with more than 60 points where daily random controls will be carried out in the affected areas, with the participation of at least 200 Local Police officers. The delegate of Security and Emergencies, Inmaculada Sanz, pointed out that this device “will focus exclusively on three fundamental aspects that the order includes: the mobility restrictions that have been established; monitoring compliance with schedules and gauging measures in the hospitality sector, and trying to guarantee home isolation of people with positive PCR.“ Sanz reported that they will work in collaboration with the National Police and the Government Delegation in Madrid, "with the aim of being as effective as possible in complying with the order of the Community of Madrid."

The Security and Emergencies delegate stressed that, in addition to the police presence, the City Council will reinforce social services "as it did during the pandemic with the incorporation of 264 social workers," a moment in which the work of SAMUR-Civil Protection, Madrid Salud and Samur Social "was immeasurable and it will continue to be" because the aim of the City Council "is to dump all its public services in the areas where there is more incidence of the virus and to be next to people who have a situation vulnerability that can be further affected by these isolations.“

Madrid is, at this moment, the area of Spain with the highest number of people infected by coronavirus. Hospitals in the region are on the brink of collapse and the Madrid regional government is considering reopening the field hospital that opened at the Feria de Madrid during the first wave of the pandemic. To try to coordinate efforts in the fight against COVID-19, the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, met this Monday with the president of the regional government of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso. The Prime Minister made available to the regional president all the material and human resources of the Government of Spain for the detection of new infections, the treatment of the sick and the control of the population, to prevent the spread of the virus.

Diaz Ayuso asked the President of the Spanish Government for the help of the Army to carry out PCR tests and control movements in the areas of the capital most affected by the pandemic. So far, these areas are in the South of the capital and in the Southern municipalities of the region. Its inhabitants complain of having been abandoned for decades by the City Council and the regional government, and criticize the lack of foresight and clear guidelines in the fight against the pandemic. As a neighbor from one of the affected districts denounced this Monday, “it is not logical“ that there are restrictions on a sidewalk on the street and on the opposite sidewalk, no. "I have to ask for permission to go to the pharmacy, which is across the street," she lamented in statements to the media.