Salvador Illa: "All Spaniards know that this will not be a Christmas like the previous one"

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Salvador Illa, Minister of Health, explained after the meeting of the Interterritorial Council that in the next meeting of those responsible for Health of the Ministry and autonomies, to be held next Wednesday, they

, common to all autonomies, to prevent contagions from firing up again at Christmas.

"That it will not be a Christmas like the previous one, it seems to me that all Spaniards already know it.

," said the minister.

Of particular concern are the upcoming celebrations of the Constitution Bridge and Christmas.

Illa has announced, to prepare a package of recommendations for elderly people who wish to meet with their families, students who return home or organize the Three Kings parades, among other occasions that will increase, predictably, the risk of contagion.

Asked if the plan is late, given that some communities are about to present theirs, Illa replied: "We are on November 18, there is a month and a half left. We are going in a timely manner."

Although he has not wanted to advance what specific measures are being considered or what kind of recommendations could be made from the executive or if they would be mandatory.

Salvador Illa also explained the Ministry's position on the possibility of performing antigen tests in pharmacies.

trained

and in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions," he said.

The minister has considered that the position of his Ministry coincides with that of the European authorities: "The tests have to be carried out, as the European Commission says, by qualified personnel and following the manufacturer's recommendations".

"I do not refuse anything," he said about the possibility of carrying out these tests in pharmacies.

But he insisted: "Whoever has a concrete plan, present it," a demand that he described as "a criterion of prudence and institutional respect."

"I have asked the autonomous communities that want to use them to make a plan," Illa said.

In reference to requests from Madrid, Catalonia or Murcia

"What we ask is to know all the details in this regard," the minister insisted, referring to data such as the training of personnel who will carry out the tests, how security will be guaranteed so that there are no infections and how integrate diagnoses in the health system.

After the first Interterritorial Council held outside Madrid, specifically in Mérida, Illa has warned that, despite the stabilization of the incidence in the whole of Spain, "we are immersed in a second wave that requires measures".

"There is still a high number of deaths," said the minister, who has set the following objective: "We should be in environments of 50, 60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants."

"We continue to have high incidence rates

, also at the beginning of winter," he insisted.

José María Vergeles, vice president and inter-territorial councilor for Health of Extremadura, has also remarked on this point: "The dry cold has not yet arrived, which is cold that the flu virus likes."

"We must maintain the tension, especially during the next weeks of December," Illa insisted.

"The holidays are going to come: we have to celebrate them, but in a different way," for her part, Carolina Darias, Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function, has advanced.

"We have been fighting this pandemic for too long, but it is up to us, our individual and collective attitude, to continue doing so," the minister asked.

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