The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, announced last night that the curfew time of 10pm (at the earliest) remains under the current state of alarm legislation, and will not be changed to 8pm, or 6pm that has been requested by some regions, and was supported by many, adding that the regional Governments and Health Authorities already have enough ‘tools’ available to stop the third wave of the virus.
This means that if an area wants to impose an earlier curfew time than 10pm, they must request it from the Ministry of Health and supply medical data to support their request. He also stressed that regions will only be able to restrict general movement via a municipal or provincial perimeter, and cannot order home confinement without the Government.
Although Salvador Illa had always promised that during this time of 'co-governance' by the coalition government, the decisions on the strategy to follow would always be agreed upon by the central government and the communities within the framework of the Inter-territorial Council of the National Health System, the Ministry of Health has practically ignored the requests of the autonomous communities asking for more ‘legal instruments’ to face this third wave, from the beginning.
From the beginning of yesterday’s meeting, Illa insisted that they did not see the need to introduce changes as the current regulatory framework had served to bend the second curve and should be sufficient to do the same with a third. The minister listened to the barrage of petitions and criticism from regional Governments, but refused to budge from his position, and reiterated that the current state of alarm still allows the autonomies enough measures before they should even consider changing it.
“Very drastic measures have already been taken. It is not a matter of adding more measures at once, but of hoping that those that have already been implemented will have an effect," said Illa, who, to try to calm things down, promised once again, “to study the feasibility of advancing the curfew as part of the on-going listening exercise" of the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health not only did not yield to the curfew, but also wanted to make it clear that it is not willing to study any other tightening measures not contemplated in the current state of alarm. Any regional requirements must be requested to the government.
