The secret of the town with zero Covid: chalets and help for the elderly at home

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Batres is one of those towns where the coronavirus has passed by.

This municipality in the south of Madrid, located in the heart of the Guadarrama River Regional Park, proudly displays the sign that

in the last 14 days

This town, the birthplace of Garcilaso de la Vega, is part of the

of 20 towns in Madrid without Covid cases for 15 days, according to

of the Community of Madrid.

And it is the only one, together with Rozas de Puerto Real,

located in the south of the region, the vast majority of contagion-free towns are located north of Madrid:

, Gascones, Braojos, La Acebeda, Ribatejada, Redueña, Pinilla del Valle, Torremocha del Jarama, Cervera de Buitrago, El Atazar, Puebla de la Sierra, La Hiruela, Horcajuelo de la Sierra, Madarcos, Horcajo de la Sierra-Aoslos and Prádena del Rincón.

To which must be added Olmeda de las Fuentes and Corpa, located to the east of the Community, however, despite the good results, in Batres

.

From the priest to the shopkeeper, the waitress or the councilor, everyone pulls the cart to combat the spread of the virus.

.

We all work together: the baker, the priest, the children's association, the groups of the elderly ... If the priest has to do an act, he calls me and, from the Town Hall, we supervise everything ", says Alicia Arcos, the councilor of Health, which visits the municipality's health center every week to get first-hand information.

Deserted streets

This town, of about 2,000 inhabitants, strictly complies with the first commandment to fight against Covid:

leave home as little as possible

.

By midmorning, the town is deserted.

It's hard to find a soul to ask about the positive data of Batres. Only Isidora Gallego goes to the bar to have a coffee with churros.

«Before, I would go for a walk and go to Griñón by public transport.

Now I don't take buses.

I just go out for the bread

.

We all take the utmost care, "says Isidora, as she gulps down the churros one by one. At the busy bar Marcela Panait, of Romanian origin, is in charge of the only bar in the municipality.

Perhaps that is another of the keys to the low rate of infections: «In this town, people follow the rules.

You don't smoke on the terrace or at the entrance

.

I put the tables on the terrace two meters apart because I have plenty of space.

Nobody has put an edge on the measures. ”The urban model of this town, which borders the province of Toledo, has also played in its favor.

Most of the houses

they are chalets built across

, so there is a lot of dispersion and isolation prevails. There is no doubt that the geography of Batres is very peculiar.

The town is divided in two: on the one hand,

is the urban area

, which has a castle where the poet Garcilaso de la Vega lived.

On the other, there are the Cotorredondo and Montebatres urbanizations, which are located just seven kilometers away through the countryside, but, as they are a natural park, you have to take a 23-kilometer detour by road to access them. “Batres has a horizontal urban model, in the Californian style, which has benefited us.

We have isolated nuclei and few common areas, so

there is little contact between neighbors »

, argues Mayor Víctor Manuel López Rodríguez, of Agrupación de Batres, knows what he's up to.

A firefighter by profession, López Rodríguez had to experience the wave of victims of Covid in the first person

in nursing homes for the elderly in Leganés.

With extensive experience behind him, this mayor has carried out emergency work

during the Sri Lanka tsunami

or the floods of Guatemala. Curiously, what he experienced in the residences of civilized Europe reminded him of those tragedies in Third World countries.

«It was very tragic to be taking out the shrouds with the deceased grandparents

.

There were times when we lost humanity.

I remembered when it was my turn to move the corpses in garbage bags in Guatemala or Sri Lanka, ”he says.

Political instability

Now, he is determined to apply his background in the municipality and, for all this, he affects prevention measures and caring for the elderly.

The councilor has launched the initiative

the city council comes to your door

, in which officials

they move to the homes of neighbors

to facilitate that the elderly do not have to leave home to carry out paperwork. It also calls for greater agility in the Administration in order to face a pandemic such as that of the

coronavirus

: "The bureaucratic system is obsolete. We must speed up the procedures because any contract with the Administration

slows everything down

.

It is necessary to change the law on State contracts, "says López has only been in office since October, although he had already been mayor for two years. His appointment came after Julio Marqués Barrios, of the Democratic Transparency of Batres,

resigned by failing to get a salary

as first mayor. For years political ups and downs have reigned in this bucolic town.

In Batres there have been situations as paradoxical as a confluence of Podemos joining the PP to vote for a mayor of the PSOE or that

Vox supported a first mayor of the left

In López's opinion, this instability is what

has slowed the development of this unknown town

, located in an enviable place like the Regional Park of Guadarrama.

Without a doubt, being surrounded by nature is now one of its great advantages in the fight against Covid.

«This town is very healthy.

You go out and immediately you are in the field ”, declares proud a citizen.

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