From this Saturday the 26th, wearing a mask in the streets in Spain is no longer compulsory. It should still be used in closed environments and in built-up areas where it is not possible to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters between passers-by.
The measure comes at a time when national vaccination is reaching records – within days the country will receive 6 million doses, an unprecedented amount – and deaths from Covid are falling sharply (in Catalonia, in the last 24 hours , for example, he recorded if only one death).
Was this a sign of the times, or rather the end of the pandemic? Nononono, as I would say to Amy CasadeVinho.
Perhaps as an artifice of fate to remind us to live this post-covid life with caution, a recent coronavirus epidemic among young Spaniards contrasted with the “festive” news on vaccines.
So far, around 400 positive cases have been identified and around 2,000 people have been isolated. All because of a series of end-of-course trips (equivalent to the end of high school in Brazil) between June 12 and 20 to the Balearic tourist island of Mallorca, where children in their thirties Spanish schools put them on the run at parties.
Queue for PCR tests at a clinic in Barcelona, June 2021 (Susana Bragatto / Folhapress)
Or, as the Director General of Public Health of the Community of Madrid, Elena Andradas, defines it as “a program of activities, with festivals, quite intense”.
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I’m still waiting for my vaccine. I went through Covid exactly a year ago, in June 2020, and they called me for a dose on the last 22 – but it didn’t work.
That day, I arrived at the civic center adapted for the vaccination campaign and was directed to a large room decorated with light frilly garlands and a globe of mirrors hanging from the ceiling.
It didn’t look like a senior’s ball was going to take place because, instead of a group and a dance floor, there were chairs arranged according to minimum safe distances and tables where nurses handled the boxes. injection.
In front of where I was sitting, human beings with hostile faces held their arms and stared into space – you must be under surveillance for 15 minutes before you are released, in case there is a reaction to the vaccine.
My turn is coming. The nurse, without looking me in the face, asks me if I have had the Covid. I am surprised. “Yes, it’s been over a year,” I underestimate. She finally lifts her glassy-absent-weary green eyes to say, “So you can’t get that shot from Janssen.” It must be Pfizer ”.
Now, if the healthcare system is in control of our covid lives, why hasn’t it crossed the data to give me the right vaccine? Yes, let’s spend some time and public money on such “tontery”, I think. Half of the line in front of me couldn’t get vaccinated for the same reason.
Vaccination campaign in Barcelona, June 2021. And my foot (Susana Bragatto / Folhapress)
Another line follows, at the end of which a more weary-looking receptionist tells me: I can’t book you a new shot. Come back on Monday.
“Ah: and don’t even try to call the health center,” he added. “The lines are extremely crowded.”
It was the eve of the holidays, San Juan, bridge. Barcelona was starting to empty, the population was traveling. I give the receptionist a tired look. I wanted to send sifude, but what good is it.
After an additional round, I managed to schedule my dose of Pfizer for the following July 2nd.
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Not wearing a mask on the street will be inconvenient. I am not prepared for this moment and will continue to use this one because I am muy loca, or not.
And not everyone here celebrates the measure. The president of the Andalusia region, Juanma Moreno, has expressed the concern of certain sectors of Spanish society, including epidemiologists, by defining the suspension of the compulsory use of the mask on public roads as “hasty” , generating a “false sense of security”.
“We are concerned about the recent contagions and epidemics, as there are cases of the Delta variant in Gibraltar, near Andalusia,” he said. “We have seen how Portugal and Israel (…) have still imposed the use [da máscara]. I continue to recommend that citizens use it ”.
To be continued // Will continue (as we say on Spanish soil) // Continue ………….
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