Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says troops will be made available

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says troops will be made available to help regions to overcome the worrying resurgence of coronavirus.

He also said regional administrations could make decisions themselves on how to handle the fight against the pandemic, rather than central government taking charge, and would support requests by regional leaders to declare localized states of emergency.

Sanchez said the pandemic data curve is worrying and has to be contained, urging us all to be calm and vigilant, but although the current situation is ‘worrying’, he said that it would not ‘paralyse’ the country.

The Prime Minister also said regions that do not have enough tracers can count on the support of the country’s armed forces with an initial 2,000 troops being made available.

He said the army’s specific training in early detection and epidemiological tracking includes procedures for identifying risk factors and contact tracing.

Sánchez also ‘recognised the effort’ being made by Spain’s regional authorities that have carried out 8.5m PCR tests across the country.

The prime minister also spoke about ‘strengthening the digital tracking’, calling upon the regions to adopt the new RadarCOVID app.

This app allows users to know whether they have been close to someone who tested positive for Covid-19 within the previous 14 days, using Bluetooth technology.

It also allows the user to report that they tested positive anonymously and anonymously reports that to those who have been in touch with the user.

Following concerns from parents and teachers over a lack of clarity on government and regional plans for the safe reopening of classrooms in around two weeks, Sanchez guaranteed to parents and teaching staff that educational centres will be safe from COVID, and that they will be much safer than many other environments where young people have been in the past few weeks.