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The concern has led to alarm. The lack of masks and other protective equipment for toilets across the country threatens the safety of the thousands of professionals who are in hospitals fighting the coronavirus. With the risk that those who are employing themselves in the first line of battle fall infected. Each drop would increase the personnel deficit at a time when the Spanish health system is in maximum tension.

Hence, the health workers have multiplied their appeals in the last hours in a situation that they describe as "desperate". It is, as they say themselves, a cry of "SOS". In fact, there are more and more videos and photographs of health professionals denouncing how they have to manage to protect themselves from the spread of the virus. Whether it's turning garbage bags into robes or plastic filing cabinets into facial displays. As for the masks, there are places where they are being reused two or three times because it is better than having nothing, as they denounce.

Not even a week of the state of alarm has been fulfilled and the shortage in Spanish hospitals is not only evidence, but has become one of the main problems of the crisis. Plaster that the forecasts of the Government itself are that the worst of the coronavirus has not yet arrived.

This shortage of material in just a few days reinforces the opposition's complaints about the government's reaction times to the threat and about an alleged lack of foresight when preparing the system with extraordinary items of material. For its part, the Executive defends itself arguing that it is reinforcing purchases and said yesterday that it has distributed in recent days around two million masks to the autonomous communities.

The Health Minister, Salvador Illa, was eloquent in defining what the current strategy is: to buy "as much as possible" in the market. That gives a clear magnitude of the needs. Likewise, he underlined that the other two axes of action to alleviate the deficit are to organize the national production of these products and guarantee "equity" in the distribution of the material among the autonomous regions according to their need.

Publicly, it is avoided to verbalize that there is a lack of supplies, but the Government admits it in a document that it has transferred to hospitals where it proposes "alternatives and possible strategies in the face of the shortage of personal protective equipment" and that is dated March 18. In it, it establishes a new protocol of "prioritization of use in the face of scarcity" in which, in practice, the safety measures of health workers are reduced to defend themselves against the virus when caring for patients. With this, you are increasing your risk of contagion.

It seeks to save material and stretch to the maximum what is now available. For example, more than two meters you can attend without a mask and between one and two meters you only need to wear the surgical mask. It is less distance when you already need to use respiratory protection, which is the safest model.

Given the scarcity of masks, it is openly recommended to make "extended use" of them and even to "reuse" them for "multiple encounters with patients". Expired ones are also allowed.

As for clothing, if there is no clothing that protects against "biological agents", "chemical protective clothing" must be used. Just as if there are no special gloves against microorganisms, dual use gloves should be used.

"Under minimum"

"We are not cannon fodder", "we are working under minimums", have denounced the five unions represented in the Health Table of the Community of Madrid, who sent a letter to the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to warn of the urgent need for protective equipment such as face masks, gloves, gowns, disposable gowns, leggings or PPE. Alert that also came from the Príncipe de Asturias Hospital : "We ask the competent authorities to take into account the desperate situation of the workers."

Nervousness over the situation and the pressure of these appeals has strained the relationship between administrations in recent hours. The governments of the Community of Madrid, Andalusia or Catalonia accused the central executive of being "blocking" material at customs or of delays. "Since the state of alarm was decreed everything slows down," Ayuso complained about the problems in receiving orders.

This point was denied by the Minister of Health, who said that the only retentions are in cases of "price abuse or illicit trafficking". In addition, he replied that the acquisition of the material by the Government does not prevent the autonomies from buying more. In any case, Illa announced the shipment yesterday of 324,000 masks to Madrid and 245,000 to Andalusia. In any case, the PP supported Ayuso's criticism and demanded that Pedro Sánchez use the single command "now" to guarantee supply.

In parallel, Spain has requested material from the European Union to deal with the crisis through the Civil Protection Mechanism . The request was formalized on March 16, when Italy made it at the end of February.

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  • Salvador Illa
  • European Union
  • Pedro Sánchez
  • Isabel Díaz Ayuso
  • Spain
  • Coronavirus

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