The president of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, has expressed his "dissension" with the measures announced this Wednesday by the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to deal with the sixth wave of Covid to hit the Spanish state. Aragonès expressed this view in a press conference after the telematic conference held by Spain's autonomous community presidents this Wednesday afternoon. Apart from the need to speed up vaccination, Sánchez limited himself to announcing the return of the mandatory outdoor mask, although he left the door open for governments of the state's autonomous regions to decide on their own restrictions. In his response, the Catalan leader labelled Sánchez's management of the situation as "reckless" and advocated taking measures beyond speeding up the vaccination process, such as closing down nightlife venues and returning to overnight curfews. At the same time, Aragonès regretted that Sánchez had not specified any measures regarding the Covid fund or a means of enabling work leave for parents of infected children.
"Reckless"
During the conference, the leader of the Generalitat government was "surprised by the lack of measures put forward by the prime minister of the Spanish state" and described the package as "clearly insufficient" to deal with the rising omicron wave. At the end of the meeting, Aragonès accused Sánchez of being "reckless" in his decision to concentrate on speeding up the vaccination rate and reintroducing the obligation to wear a mask outdoors. In his opinion, these measures "are not enough" in the face of the record increase in infections, the threat from omicron, and the massive pressure already on primary care services. Regarding the obligatory nature of the mask, Aragonès considered that "it is a measure to say that you have taken a measure". At the same time, he reiterated the need for the restrictions that his government set out yesterday evening because the Catalan "scientific community" is "asking us to act bravely". Thus, pending the approval from the Catalan High Court, the curfew could be re-imposed on Catalan municipalities of more than 10,000 inhabitants with a seven-day cumulative incidence of more than 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in just a day's time - at midnight as Friday 24th begins, if the court ruling arrives in time.
Covid fund
In addition to defending the closure of the nightlife sector and the curfew, Aragonès complained "that the Spanish prime minister has not taken any action" regarding the Covid fund for 2022 to "reinforce the health system and create lines of financial assistance for the sectors most affected by the restrictions". In addition, he said, the PM did not mention the possibility of a mechanism to allow parents of children with coronavirus to apply for sick leave in order to take care of them. Pere Aragonès also appealed to other autonomous leaders to increase restrictions, which would not only be in accordance with Catalonia but also with "what other European countries are already doing", especially at a time of major mobility within the Spanish state, that is, the Christmas holidays.
Main photo: Catalan president Pere Aragonès / ACN