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  • Testimonies. Confined in Igualada due to the coronavirus: "I go alone through the streets of a ghost town '"

The central government has stopped the attempt of the Generalitat to impose without competencies a "total confinement" of Igualada and its neighboring populations, which 14 days ago were isolated by the Catalan Executive, taking advantage of the fact that it still had the authority to do so. At that time, the state of alarm had not yet been decreed and the single command had been put into operation to centralize the response to the pandemic.

Late yesterday, the Minister of the Interior of the Generalitat, Miquel Buch, issued a resolution by which he resolved to extend the confinement of the Òdena basin for 15 more days and to toughen it up, so that its population could not abandon their home or not even to work, unless they were employed in "essential" economic activities. In other words, the Government was trying to apply the "total confinement" that Quim Torra has been demanding for Catalonia for weeks.

The Government's reply has arrived this morning and has been overwhelming. Through a statement, the central executive recalled that "an order of these characteristics can only be given by the competent authority, that is, the Minister of Health," Salvador Illa .

The Government does not rule out imposing in Igualada and its surroundings the most severe confinement that the Generalitat threatened to decree. For this, he recalls that Spain "follows the WHO recommendations at all times" and reiterates that "it has adopted the most drastic measures in Europe and the strictest worldwide".

The Executive chaired by Pedro Sánchez ends his reprimand to the Govern "calling once again for unity of action between administrations in the fight against the pandemic."

The reaction of the Generalitat has been in line with the strategy used in recent weeks: to blame the Government for the spread of infections and deaths in Catalonia. "I do not find the decision to deny the confinement of the Òdena basin right. The Spanish government has decided that instead of working together, it had to subordinate us," the Interior Minister contested. Miquel Buch has recommended to the citizens of Igualada and its adjacent towns to adopt the total confinement that the Government refuses to impose and that "they only go to work in the case of essential services".

"With Igualada's figures, we cannot think of anything other than people staying home," added the Minister of Health of the Generalitat, Alba Vergés .

On Thursday the Govern justified that it dictated without powers the tightening of the confinement of the Òdena basin in the face of the high mortality that the coronavirus is causing in the area, since, according to its estimates, it reaches 63.1 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to the average of 6.9 for Catalonia, 7.4 for the whole of Spain or 27.9 for Madrid.

The Generalitat assures that it will continue with the access controls to the Òdena area, but has acknowledged that it will be the Government who decides whether to maintain them.

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  • Catalonia
  • Spain
  • Salvador Illa
  • Madrid
  • Quim Torra
  • Pedro Sánchez
  • Europe
  • Coronavirus

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