Laurence Dollimore
MADRID has announced that 37 districts will enter an effective lockdown from Monday in a bid to bring down its COVID-19 figures.
The 855,193 affected residents will only be allowed to leave their areas to go to work or fulfil ‘legal or educational’ obligations, among other few exceptions.
Regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso said at a press conference today that police patrols will be stepped up to enforce the new norms.
It comes as the region registered another 1,212 cases in the past 24 hours and three more deaths.
While the case increase is down from the more than 1,500 seen Thursday, Madrid remains top of the charts in terms of COVID-19 incidence, with a rate of 659.41 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Meanwhile there have been 57 hospitalisations in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of admitted coronavirus patients in Madrid to 2,907.
Of these, some 397 are battling the virus in intensive care units, up five from yesterday, according to Efe.
The measures, effective from Monday, are being brought in to try to stop the expansion of the virus and to ‘avoid confinement and a state of alarm’, added Ayuso.
In the affected areas (listed below), entry and exit is forbidden except for travelling to health centres, for work, attending an educational centre, going to or returning to your home, caring for the elderly or a dependant, going to the bank or a financial institution, the courts or a notary or for an exceptional circumstance.
Public and private meetings will be reduced to six throughout Madrid while parks and gardens will be closed.
Ayuso said a million serological tests will be carried out in the 37 at-risk areas to get a clearer picture of who is infected.
The leader will have a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday, which she insisted will be within a ‘collaborative’ environment.
Ayuso also asked the public to remain alert, saying ‘the majority of infections in August have occurred in the private sphere.’
In the Madrid capital, the affected areas are Puerta Bonita, Vista Alegre and Guayaba, in Carabanchel; Almendrales, Las Calesas, Zofio, Orcasur and San Fermin, in Usera; San Andres, San Cristobal, El Espinillo and Los Rosales, in Villaverde; the area of ??Villa de Vallecas; Entrevias, Martinez de la Riva, San Diego, Numancia, Peña Prieta, Pozo del Tio Raimundo, Angela Uriarte, Alcala de Guadaira and Federica Montseny, in the Puente de Vallecas district; and Doctor Cirajas, Ghandi, Daroca and La Elipa, in Ciudad Lineal.
In Fuenlabrada, the affected areas are Alicante, Cuzco and Francia.
Also affected are the municipalities of Humanes de Madrid and Moraleja de Enmedio, and in Parla, the health districts of San Blas and Isabel II.
For its part, Getafe will be affected in Las Margaritas and Sanchez Morate; in San Sebastian de los Reyes, the area of ??Reyes Catolicos; and in Alcobendas, the area of ??Chopera and Miraflores.
