Torra urges new total lockdown

BarcelonaThe former president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, has issued a statement today in which, in view of the "extremely serious evolution of the pandemic", he calls on the Government and parties to consider a total lockdown and absolute restriction of mobility outside essential services. He advocates a return to the model applied during the first wave. "It's much better to have a drastic and total shutdown that affects everyone than a slow agony that always harms the same sectors," he says. Torra asks to leave aside the study of possible "electoral returns" while the covid-19 advances "unharnessed and ends many lives every day".

The first to react to the petition has been the spokesperson for the acting government, Meritxell Budó, who has assured that for now they do not foresee a home confinement in Catalonia, even though she has defended that she does believe that the State will have to decree it "shortly", either in statewide or by regions. "I don't know what they are waiting for to do it", Budó remarked in declarations to the Cadena SER Catalunya. Budó recalled that Catalonia does not have the power to impose this measure.

The vice-president and acting president, Pere Aragonès, has reiterated in an interview to TV3 that "the Government cannot take the decision to impose total lockdown because it is a competence of the State". "If we ask for it, it will be following the criteria of the Health Departmet and it has not been considered", she has revealed after stressing that such a measure would require compensation.

In his statement, Torra defends that the data from the third wave forces "drastic" decisions to be taken without delay: "The increase in the infection curves is exponential and we cannot wait another day to restrict the population's mobility to the maximum in order to protect health and life". He assures that his experience at managing of the health crisis -until he was disqualified- taught him that it is always necessary to move forward with the "bravest and most severe measures" to stop an expansion like the one we are experiencing.

Attack on Illa

Torra also points the finger directly at Salvador Illa's management of pandemic, when he assures that the Spanish Health Minister of the Spanish government is more concerned with the electoral race than with making the necessary decisions or allowing the government of Catalonia to make them". "Any lack of willingness now to protect our citizens from the pandemic is a very serious mistake", he defends.

The president of the Col·legi de Metges de Barcelona (COMB), Jaume Padrós, has also noted on social networks that the European scenario is worsening and has once again called for further restrictions on contact and mobility, even to the point of "intense and short" confinement. He added that the Spanish government has the power to do this and defended that it would be "reasonable" because the health situation is "critical". Padrós defended, however, that, at the same time, the affected sectors should be compensated economically.