Darias opposes holding demonstrations on March 8: "They would not understand each other"

The Government wants to avoid another massive March 8 in the middle of the pandemic. In 2020, ignorance and lack of reaction allowed tens of thousands of people to take to the streets when the coronavirus already had a community transmission in Spain. This year, the lesson seems learned.

On the same day that the Government delegate in Madrid, José Manuel Franco, announced that he would allow events of up to 500 people, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, has expressed herself with great forcefulness about the March 8 marches: "There is no place. I say it bluntly: I would not allow or understand that they were carried out."

Government Delegation in Madrid will prohibit the 8-M demonstrations with more than 500 attendees

Europa Press

In a press conference after meeting with the regional representatives in the Interterritorial Health Council, Darias recalled that the epidemiological situation does not advise acts such as Women's Day, since Spain is still "at high risk", with a cumulative incidence (AI) of 218.67 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days.

The trend is positive, but the Executive prefers to be prudent. The Minister of Health has ruled out that her department intervenes – the competence to authorize demonstrations corresponds to the Government delegations, although she has stressed that it would not be coherent to endorse the 8-M while asking for responsibility in all areas.

A "shared strategy" for Easter

With Easter, something similar happens. The third wave of the pandemic is already history in Spain, which is out of extreme risk for the first time since the beginning of the year. But Health does not want to make the same mistakes as at Christmas, when the second wave seemed controlled and the number of infections ran wild after the permissiveness of the measures during the holidays.

Health registers 9,212 new cases of coronavirus and 389 more deaths

Ana Maria Rodriguez

Darias has once again launched a message of caution to all autonomous communities, especially those that have less restrictive measures or are relaxing them, such as Madrid. "The de-escalation has to be as gradual as possibleWe know the consequences of an abrupt de-escalation, "said the minister, referring to the Christmas holidays.

This time, the Government's objective is to lower an AI of 50. Until that figure is reached, the Executive does not want to hear about saving Easter. And, in any case, it must be done jointly.

As revealed by Darias, Health already works with the autonomous communities to establish a "shared strategy" that allows citizens to "know what can and cannot be done" during the holidays. The intention is to avoid the disparity of measures that occurred at Christmas, although the minister has refused to confirm whether the document will be binding for the different regions.

Endorses vaccination in large spaces

Another concern of the Government is the rate of vaccination. The new delays known this week in AstraZeneca deliveries, which will be cut in half during the second quarter, is a pitcher of cold water, but the Executive maintains its plan to immunize 70% of the population by the end of the summer. "The Government is going to demand that the companies comply with what has been signed," Darias reiterated.

The Minister of Health avoids pronouncing on the Galician vaccination law and recalls that in Spain it is "voluntary"

While waiting for the supply problems to be solved, the Interterritorial Council has endorsed that the autonomies use stadiums and other large spaces to practice massive injections, as some of them have announced. For the minister, the different options of the communities are valid, "especially when more vaccines arrive from April, when we will need larger spaces for a more agile vaccination," he pointed out.

In this sense, Darias has avoided criticizing the Galician law, which imposes fines of up to 60,000 euros to those who do not get vaccinated, and has simply recalled that in Spain immunization is "voluntary", so it will be necessary to check if the controversial norm is attentive against fundamental rights.

The head of Health has not gone into details when asked about the biological passport announced by the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto. The proposal would allow creating safe corridors for those who are already vaccinated or have antibodies against the virus, waiting for it to materialize in the coming weeks.

The Galician PP alone approves the law that fines for refusing the covid vaccine

EFE

Finally, the Interterritorial Council of this Wednesday has approved that people displaced to other autonomous communities can receive the second dose of the vaccine at the destination, as well as a new Cancer Strategy of the National Health System, 10 years after the last update.