Budó speaks of possible regional mobility during the December bank holiday but Vergés calls for caution

BarcelonaThe decision to switch between de-escalation stages will depend exclusively on health criteria, but the Govern has mentioned relaxing some of the restrictions as a one-off now that some holiday dates - such as Christmas - are getting closer. The Minister for the Presidency and spokesperson of the Government, Meritxell Budó, does not rule out that certain measures are changed at the beginning of the December bank holiday - on December 5th -, instead of on December 7th, when the second de-escalation stage would begin. These measures would involve lifting the municipal lockdown and authorizing regional mobility. "[If the epidemiological data is good] We can adjust this. It is important to talk to the sectors involved and see if it is better to apply the second phase of measures from the 5th, so that they involve the bank holiday, or the 7th. We will see", she said on Friday in an interview with Radio 4.

However, the Catalan Health Minister, Alba Vergés, has called for caution throughout the process of social and economic recovery, and has avoided making any statements on the possibility of allowing regional mobility during the December holiday period: "We are starting to open activities progressively on Monday. Let's not get ahead of ourselves". The Secretary for Public Health, Josep Maria Argimon, has warned that this reopening during the second wave will begin with much higher indicators than those recorded during the de-escalation in May. At that time, he recalled, there were about 30 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while now the incidence is much higher, with about 200 cases per week per 100,000 inhabitants.

As a matter of fact, there are now some 2,000 cases reported daily, and more than 500 patients are in ICUs; the is far more serious than it was at the beginning of June. "We are starting from a much worse situation", Argimon warned. However, he admitted that the emergency, in addition to health factors, also involves "social and economic" factors, and Vergés stressed that the government was trying to find "a balance between vitality and security" - which "involves an epidemiological risk".

Although the reopening of will start throughout Catalonia - without distinction between regions - as of this Monday, and there is a will to advance "simultaneously and symmetrically" throughout the country, the Minister has acknowledged that an asymmetric easing of restrictions, territory by territory, was "feasible". Budó had already mentioned this during the presentation of the de-escalation plan: if there are areas with a higher incidence, the government could halt the de-escalation of these territories, or even step back a stage, in order to contain the spreading of the virus.