For several autonomous regions, Minister Monica García’s call for an interregional committee to convene next Monday comes too late. “Because the Ministry of Health has not taken measures, I am taking these measures,” Valencian Community Health Minister Marciano Gomez said on Friday, announcing that the wearing of masks would be mandatory again in the region’s medical centers from today.
“I believe the ministry should move forward. This is long overdue because since the last inter-regional commission on December 21, the incidence rate nationwide has risen to 1,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and in our community 1,500 cases,” Gomez told Cadena Ser.
Madrid’s health minister, Fátima Matute, was also not optimistic about the minister’s statement. Matute criticized Garcia for convening the interregional committee “in an extraordinary and hasty manner while he has been on leave since December 21.” “It is not the intention to convene an interregional council when the date has passed and the epidemic is almost at its peak,” he denounced. He argued that Madrid “has taken precautionary measures since November and developed the necessary plans to cope with this situation. “
He also expressed regret that the Public Health Committee did not convene a meeting sooner so that technical staff could propose the measures that should be taken: “This is where experts assess the situation and make technical recommendations that we have to take.” He said that meetings had been held in recent months Four inter-regional committees later, “we had anticipated that this situation would exist, but the public health committee that would have made recommendations for action has not yet been convened.”
No news from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
Galicia positively commented on the interregional meeting held by the Ministry of Health to agree on common measures, but stressed that although the wearing of masks has been recommended for the community for a week, the Ministry has not yet contacted Xunta to find out the specific situation. Transmission of respiratory viruses.
Likewise, Ester Muñoz, the PP’s national undersecretary for health and education, accused Garcia of not making “a single call” to advisers to express “concern or interest.” He criticized: “He has been on holiday since Christmas Eve and now he has appeared again when the borough has been fighting a wave of infections for weeks and professionals are showing up.”