La Comunidad de Madrid fue la que alertó al resto.

The Comunidad de Madrid has released a video to mark the fifth anniversary of the Covid pandemic, comparing its management with that of the Central Administration in response to attacks from the Government and the left.

The Madrid Government has also issued a statement in response to the campaign by «the left and the far left» regarding Covid-19 to tell «the truth of what happened», and this afternoon the President of the Comunidad de Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will make a statement on the fifth anniversary of the pandemic and in the face of attempts to «use pain for their political interests».

The video starts by referring to the 121,852 deaths in Spain due to Covid-19 and recalls some of the statements during those days by the main officials of the Health Administration, the then Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, and the coordinator of the Health Emergency Center, Fernando Simón.

The chief of staff of the Comunidad de Madrid, Miguel Angel García Martín recalled today that “it was the Comunidad de Madrid, the one that woke up the rest, the first to take measures, the first to sanitize residences, the first to create a hospital at Ifema for the specific attention of Covid patients, the first to incorporate antigen tests, to vaccinate, in short, to put all the means of the Administration at the disposal of those people”.

In the document presented by the regional government, the number of 7,291 deaths in residences that «agitates the left» is denied, and it is asserted that the actual number of deaths in residences was 4,100.

Therefore, they detail what they consider “exact data about everything that happened in those tragic days”.

NOTE FROM THE COMUNIDAD DE MADRID

• Madrid was always ahead, with innovative initiatives and leading in Spain during the pandemic based on sanitary and clinical criteria, which had a broad international impact.
• It was the first in Spain to close residences, schools, promote teleworking, and warn the elderly not to leave their homes.

– The central government, with Salvador Illa as Minister of Health—now President of the Generalitat of Catalonia—was overwhelmed from minute one by the COVID pandemic, always lagging behind the management and decisions applied by the Comunidad de Madrid, the first region to approve closures and restrictions at the start of the pandemic to save lives. Illa, however, imposed a single command with a supposed committee of experts that never existed. They prohibited autonomous communities from purchasing essential medical supplies, and when we were able to do so, they even criticized the quality of the materials acquired by the Comunidad de Madrid.

• COVID hit the region hard due to its status as the country’s nerve center, the situation at Barajas airport, and having a population density 9 times higher than the national average. On numerous occasions, we demanded greater control of the airport, especially on flights arriving from countries with the highest number of infections. They never listened to us.
• The Comunidad de Madrid immediately united the public and private healthcare system under its command to coordinate actions more efficiently.
• It erected the IFEMA Hospital in just 72 hours, a national and international milestone where thousands of patients were treated in the first wave.
• Within 100 days and at the start of the pandemic, it built a public hospital, the Isabel Zendal Nurse, which cared for over 10,000 people.
• – Bewilderment, opacity, and rectifications were the hallmarks of the Sánchez Government’s management, especially in the first wave of COVID, the toughest due to the high number of deaths.
• The Comunidad de Madrid fought against COVID while defending economic activity, a measure that attracted global interest and for which it was later recognized by all kinds of entities and institutions. The central government illegally closed Madrid.
• The Comunidad de Madrid was a pioneer in warning about airborne virus transmission, informing the population about the importance of ventilation.
• Madrid once again led the way with the massive and free distribution of high-quality masks during the worst of the pandemic, with the collaboration of all pharmacies to reach as many citizens as possible.

Madrid was a pioneer in:

• Designing an efficient and agile vaccination process, opening large vaccination centers in stadiums, sports venues, or large companies.
• Creating a COVID analysis device in wastewater that predicted epidemiological evolution. A project by the Canal de Isabel II that has been exported to other countries.
• Also, with the unprecedented opening of 14 sanitized hotels where nearly 5,000 people were cared for.
• Additionally, it managed to bring 2,000 tons of protective medical equipment through an air corridor with Asia via 24 cargo planes.
• It was the first autonomous community in Spain to purchase antigen tests, distributed for free in pharmacies. A key measure for diagnoses and for halting the virus spread in advance.
• Introduced an innovative system of restrictions by basic health zones according to the virus’s evolution.
• The main Spanish medical societies publicly endorsed the actions in hospitals and elderly residences in Madrid.
• In the lead-up to the state of alarm in Spain, it created a network of leading geriatricians from hospitals as a link with elderly residences.
• All elderly residents requiring hospitalization were transferred to hospitals; there was no order indicating otherwise.
• During the first wave, SUMMA 112 transferred 11,200 elderly individuals from residences in the region to hospitals.
• Madrid fought for every life. 25% of patients treated were over 80 years old, and 50% were over 70.

Meanwhile, the central government, which admitted that its COVID expert committee did not exist, predicted on the eve of the pandemic: “There will only be two or three cases.” Everything in the central government was chaotic. It was Vice President Pablo Iglesias who defined himself as the social shield against the pandemic. He never provided any explanation.

This is a summary of that chaos and the flood of rectifications from Moncloa in the deadliest months of COVID in Spain in 2020:

◦ Contrary to the mass testing, selective confinements, and surgical measures of Madrid.

◦ Hesitant about distributing antigen tests in pharmacies in Madrid.

◦ Casting doubt on the epidemiological data of Madrid.

◦ Labeling the FFP2 masks given for free in Madrid as selfish.

◦ Advocating for the closure of hospitality as the most effective way to stop contagion.

◦ Rejecting the perimetral closure by zones and days applied by Madrid.

◦ Ridiculing Madrid’s request to suspend flights from South Africa to stop contagion.

◦ Removing the fees on planes bringing surgical materials, a request from Madrid.

◦ Allowing hotels to reopen to accommodate healthcare workers, as demanded by Madrid.

◦ Revising to request tests at airports of origin, as requested by Madrid.

◦ Revising and closing essential activities for two weeks.

◦ Revising and closing hair salons.

◦ Revising and allowing travel to second residences.

◦ Revising children’s outings for walks.

◦ Revising and setting the opening of land borders for July 1st.

◦ Revising and advancing the opening of borders with the EU to June 21st.

◦ Revising and unlinking the quarantine for foreign tourists from the state of alarm.

◦ Revising and mandating the use of masks.

◦ Revising and increasing terraces’ maximum occupancy to 50%.

◦ Revising and allowing fishing and hunting in Phase 1 of de-escalation.

◦ Revising the total number of deaths and reducing it by nearly 2,000.

◦ Revising and extending the state of alarm until June 7th.

◦ Revising and uncertainty about isolating symptomatic patients.

◦ Revising and ordering COVID tests within 24 hours for symptomatic patients.

◦ Revising and allowing discounts during de-escalation.

◦ Revising to allow self-employed individuals to combine unemployment with another benefit.

◦ Revising with permissions for parents with quarantine.

◦ Revising to allow municipalities to use surpluses—Madrid’s request—and for ERTEs not to consume unemployment time.

◦ As COVID started to devastate Europe, allowing the March 8th demonstrations.

◦ Prohibition of purchasing medical supplies with the intention of centralizing them.

◦ Closure of the transparency portal and dismissal of its officials.

◦ Concealment of the minutes of the inter-territorial health council meetings and their subsequent and belated publication with manipulations.

◦ Arguing that PCR testing of travelers is not worthwhile.

◦ Using a nonexistent international report on Spain’s leadership in coronavirus testing.

◦ After the first wave, the government admits to more measures demanded by Madrid such as: the Digital Covid certificate, ventilation in hospitality venues, vaccinations in mutuals, ban on home gatherings, delay in second doses, or sale of rapid tests in pharmacies.

The Comunidad de Madrid notes that “the Spanish Justice system has closed more than 60 cases regarding elderly residences during the first wave of COVID-19” and that “in the face of this succession of setbacks,” what it terms as “a popular tribunal, self-proclaimed in Citizens’ Commission for the truth, led by prominent members or sympathizers of the left” has been created to “construct a false narrative in the face of the continuous judicial rulings against their partisan interests”