The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, announced earlier today that the regional government has hired two planes loaded with medical supplies that will depart from China, bound for the capital of Spain, to help Madrid hospitals to address shortages due to the coronavirus crisis (COVID-19). "Can you assure me that you will not block the order with material from the Community of Madrid prepared in Shanghai ?, Diaz Ayuso asked the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, during a videoconference with the rest of the presidents of the Autonomous Communities.

At the meeting held a week ago, the president asked the central government for urgent help with this material aimed at healthcare professionals and patients , which she detailed in a letter to President Sánchez on Wednesday.

According to regional government sources, the first plane will arrive in the next 48 hours and it will include ventilators and respirators, two of the most popular devices in ICUs to serve those infected by the coronavirus.

"We need 300 respirators so that the ICUs do not collapse and they are not going to because they are going to arrive. Masks, gowns and tests will also arrive," Ayuso said on Telemadrid after the conference.

In this, the head of the Madrid regional government has stressed that, in the face of the coronavirus emergency situation, she considers it "essential" that the central executive reconsider its decision to close the hotels, since these facilities are vital to serve the blocked tourists in Madrid, as well as battered women or homeless people.

It is, he pointed out, key facilities so that they can host toilets that come from other autonomous communities to combat COVID-19 in the region. Regarding the medicalized hotels in the Community of Madrid, he said that they already attend 56 patients and that more hotels (6) will be incorporated immediately.

In addition, it has contributed the figure of a total of 1,309 ICU beds in service in hospitals in the Community of Madrid, 1,046 of them in public hospitals, with an occupation of 80%. "It encourages the 1,900 discharges that have already occurred" in the region, he said.

Díaz Ayuso has taken advantage of his intervention in this new videoconference with Sánchez to detail the need for urgent help from the central government, now also focused on having 2,000 toilets for hospitals. These would join the permanent workforce and the reinforcement of 4,719 contracted reinforcements by the Madrid Executive in recent days to face the increase in positives .

Also, he added, the request for 1,000 workers to join the nursing homes in the region, where there are a total of 425 of these centers that require protective equipment -EPIs- in those 15 with infections by the virus. "In order to consolidate clean residences, it is essential to have more rapid tests for accessing personnel," along with more UME personnel for disinfection, he pointed out. Likewise, the Community of Madrid has requested 1,000 sanitary bags for corpses.

Economic aspect

The Madrid president has also dedicated part of her speech in the videoconference to the economic side of the coronavirus crisis, indicating that the Regional Government has spent more than 10 million euros in education alone since its inception.

Díaz Ayuso has warned of the "dry braking" of productive capacity after the approval of the Royal Government Decree of the state of alarm. "Now," he said, "we need forceful, very short-term measures to keep companies alive, SMEs and the self-employed." In this regard, he stressed that these groups must have access to liquidity in order not to close and that this unlimited window of liquidity, for those affected by the closure, is a responsibility for the central government to provide quickly. "The Executive," he added, "must be more ambitious and forceful than the guarantees, as France or the United Kingdom have already done."

Thus, Díaz Ayuso believes "crucial" that the Government of Spain condone - and not a delay - taxes on SMEs and the self-employed while the restrictions last and are in force. In addition, that it agrees to exempt the payment of Social Security contributions to all the self-employed. And, lastly, that it provide liquidity and funds to the Autonomous Communities in order to attend to investments in material and health care.

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  • Madrid's community
  • Spain
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  • Pedro Sánchez
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  • Isabel Díaz Ayuso
  • France
  • China
  • Infectious diseases
  • Covid 19
  • Coronavirus

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