MADRID (AP) – While most of Europe has kicked off 2021 with previous extinctions or home orders, Spanish authorities insist new variant of coronavirus causing havoc elsewhere is not to blame for a recurrence sudden onset of cases and that the country can avoid a complete blockade even while its hospitals are filling up.
The government is tirelessly fighting drastic home closures, such as the one that paralyzed the economy for almost three months in the spring of 2020, the last time Spain could claim the victim on the stubborn growth curve.
Infection rates fell in October, but never fully flattened summer growth. Cases started to rise again before the end of the year. In the last month, 14-day rates have doubled, from 188 cases per 100,000 residents on December 10 to 522 per 100,000 on Thursday.
Nearly 39,000 new cases were reported on Wednesday and more than 35,000 on Thursday, some of the largest daily increases to date.
The increase again threatens the capacity of the intensive care unit and burdens exhausted medical workers. Some facilities have already suspended the elective operation, and the eastern city of Valencia has reopened a makeshift hospital used last year.
Unlike Portugal, which is closing for a month on Friday and doubling the fines for those who do not wear masks, Spanish officials insist it will be enough to take short, highly localized measures that restrict social gatherings without affecting the entire economy.
“We know what we need to do and we are doing it,” Health Minister Salvador Illa told a news conference on Wednesday, removing a national house arrest warrant and calling for measures that were successful during the the second wave ”.
Fernando Simón, the government’s leading virus expert, blames recent rise in Christmas cases and New Year’s holidays. “The new option, even if it has an impact, will be a marginal one, at least for us,” he said this week.
But many independent experts disagree and say that Spain does not have the capacity to carry out large-scale sequencing of evidence to detect how the new variants have spread and that 88 confirmed cases and almost 200 suspected cases about which Officials say they were largely imported from the UK underestimate the impact reality.
Dr. Rafael Bengoa, former director of health care systems at the World Health Organization, told the Associated Press that the government should immediately adopt a “strict but short-lived” four-week restriction.
“Trying to do as little as possible so as not to harm the economy or for political reasons does not take us where we need to be,” said Bengoa, who also oversaw a profound reform of the Basque regional health system.
The situation in Spain contrasts sharply with other European countries which also showed similar sharp jumps in cases, increasingly guilty of the more contagious variant first detected in the UK
The Netherlands, blocked for a month, saw the pace of infections begin to decline. But with 2% to 5% of the new COVID-19 cases in the new variant, the country is on Friday requiring air passengers in the UK, Ireland and South Africa to provide not only a negative PCR test performed with a maximum of 72 hours before departure but also a rapid result of the antigen test immediately before take-off.
France, where a recent study of 100,000 positive tests gave about 1% of infections with the variant, requires extinguishing as early as 18:00, and the Minister of Health, Oliver Veran, did not rule out an order to stay at home if the situation worsens.
Existing blockages or the prospect of compulsory closure have not been questioned or turned into a political issue in other European countries.
Ireland has imposed a complete blockade after it was found that widespread infections are linked to the new variant. Italy has a color-coded system that activates a strict lock at the highest level – or red -, although there are currently no areas at that stage.
In the UK, scientific evidence of the new variant has silenced some critics of the restrictions and encouraged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose stricter measures, but slightly lighter than the nation’s first blockade.. People were ordered to stay home, except for limited trips and exercise, and schools were closed, with a few exceptions.
In Germany, where the new average daily number of new cases has recently reached 26 per 100,000 people, many high-ranking officials argue that the existing strict confinement order must be strengthened and extended beyond its current end of the January Expiration.
The Nordic countries have rejected complete mandatory blockades, instead imposing strict restrictions on assemblies and certain activities. Residents were asked to follow specific recommendations to limit the spread of the virus.
In Sweden, the problem is both legal and political, as there is no law that allows the government to restrict population mobility. While urging residents to refrain from going to the gym or library, Sweden’s first Stefan Lofven said last month “we don’t believe in a total blockade” before adding “We follow our strategy”.
Political decision-makers in Spain seem to have a similar approach, although it remains to be seen whether the results will prove to be wrong. On Thursday, they insisted that vaccinations will soon reach “cruising speed.”
But Bengoa, a former WHO expert, said vaccinations would not solve the problem immediately.
“Trying to live with the virus and these data for months means living with very high mortality and the possibility of creating new variants,” he said, adding that the new variant of the virus widely identified in the UK would it could make the original version start to look “good.”
Dr. Salvador Macip, a researcher at the University of Leicester and the Open University of Catalonia, says that the combination of spiral infections and uncertainty about new variants should be enough for a more restrictive approach, but that pandemic fatigue makes such decisions more difficult. for countries like Spain, with a polarized policy.
“People are tired of making sacrifices that lead us nowhere, because they see that they will have to repeat them,” Macip said.
—-
Associated Press writers from all over Europe have contributed.
—-
Follow AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at:
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak