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BASQUE PARLIAMENT

Agencies | EITB AVERAGE

Iñigo Urkullu has announced that if the evolution of the pandemic continues to be positive, most of the restrictions in force in the Basque Country to control covid-19 could be deactivated.

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The Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, has advanced that if the evolution of the pandemic remains positive, this Tuesday will propose the deactivation of the health emergency in Euskadi at the meeting of the Advisory Council of the Basque Civil Protection Plan, LABI.

“We’re passing by from a pandemic to an endemic situation which allows a new step to be taken, “he stressed this Friday in the control plenary session in the Basque Parliament, in response to PNV parliamentarian Luis Javier Tellería who asked the Lehendakari about his forecasts regarding the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. 19.

The lehendakari explained that the technical commission that advises the LABI determined this Thursday that “the transition stage has been completed for recover the normalized stage and that therefore it is possible to pass to this new phase “.

“In this context and given that we are meeting the objectives, hopefully, depending on the fact that in the coming days we continue with the positive evolution maintained so far, we can address the decree that establishes the end of the health emergency situation,” he said. Urkullu.

However, he has warned that “the undoubted improvement in the situation does not dissipate, in any case, all the uncertainties and latent threats. For this reason, until the global pandemic ends, it considers it necessary to continue maintaining the daily epidemiological analysis, to verify to consolidate the trend in the different indicators and to observe the evolution of the virus variants “.

Positive evolution

Urkullu has highlighted that the evolution of the pandemic in recent weeks has been positive, since the incidence rate at 14 days has been decreasing for 73 days in a row. As detailed, on July 30, the Basque Country registered a rate of 873 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and today it is below 80 cases.

Likewise, it has detailed that the highest occupancy in ICUs was registered on August 22 with 82 occupied beds and today it is in half. Regarding vaccination, he highlighted that 90% of the population over twelve years of age has been reached with one dose of the vaccine and with the complete schedule at 88.5%.

“These data coincide with the evolution that the pandemic has had and is having throughout Europe. It is a downward trend, stable and sustainable. We are in a different situation and therefore we have to give different answers “, he pointed out.

Lifting of most restrictive measures

Sources from the Basque Presidency have specified that the deactivation of the state of health emergency implies the lifting of most of the restrictive measures and the maintenance of some “very specific and specific” and that they must be “much tighter”.

Among these is not the disappearance of the obligation to use the mask indoors and outdoors if the safety distance is not met, since this measure is the responsibility of the Government of Spain.

The end of the emergency also means that the Basque anti-pandemic law declines and that Tuesday will be the last advisory council of the Basque Civil Protection Plan, which with that meeting will have held 33 meetings.

With the one predictably signed on Tuesday, the Lehendakari will have signed 19 decrees since the pandemic began. Once this exceptional situation ends, the management of the pandemic will remain in the hands of the Basque Department of Health.