The epidemiologist Daniel López Acuña talks to Federico Quevedo about the latest changes made by the Ministry of Health to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. In just one week, Health has gone from a totally restrictive proposal to opening up some competencies to the Autonomous Communities.
According to López Acuña, “before talking about competences, it is necessary to know what needs to be done”. Also, the epidemiologist reports that the incidence is still high in some Autonomous Communities and that COVID-19 is concentrated in young people. The epidemiologist insists that it is still necessary to maintain important measures during the summer: “by declining the state of alarm we have entered into 17 strategic frameworks and the impossibility of reaching consensus”.
For López Acuña, the state of alarm “should have been maintained for longer”. The compulsory measures, according to the epidemiologist, “could have been included in the state of alarm”.
There is still a risk, according to López Acuña
Although progress is being made in vaccination, there are still risks because the “incidence is 10 times higher than last summer, the virus is still circulating and there is still transmission”, as López Acuña says. For the epidemiologist, the pandemic is not over and the new variants may escape vaccination.
According to López Acuña, “the variants can change the balance, so we have to move forward with vaccination and keep the mask on”. The epidemiologist says that he will continue to use the mask even though he is already vaccinated, “the vaccine protects against the severity but we can catch it and spread it”.
The mask does not affect an essential activity and does not disrupt our lives. It is a change that has brought benefits such as reducing the number of flu cases. For the epidemiologist it is an “instrument of protection that in due course will be discontinued and that will be maintained in other areas such as healthcare”.
Listen to the full interview in the audio below:
Through ‘El Balance’, a program hosted by Federico Quevedo on Capital Radio, Influence Spain is able to expand its network of contacts within the national, regional and municipal spectrum.
