The Government waited 48 hours after Christmas Eve to bring together the presidents of the autonomous communities and try to come up with a common action plan against covid for this Christmas (the result was to resume the mandatory nature of the mask outdoors, a measure not endorsed by Public Health technicians). But to trace the reduction in quarantines proposed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, she hit such a spurt that in a few hours she had summoned all the decision-making bodies of the pandemic, breaking the usual protocols. And it is that Pedro Sánchez is in a hurry to join the 'ayusismo sanitary', and it shows.

The chronology of events goes back to last week's meeting of the Public Health Commission. In said meeting, present the Ministry of Health and the general directors of the autonomous communities, the Community of Madrid proposes to review the isolation times of people with a positive covid but without symptoms. They suggest that it be reduced to seven days.

After Christmas Eve and Christmas, on Monday, December 27, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a document recommending reducing the isolation of asymptomatic patients to five days, with another five days of mask use. and monitoring. A day later, December 28, April Fools' Day, the Deputy Minister of Public Health of Madrid, Antonio Zapatero, comments on this measure at a press conference and warns that it is time to tackle the pandemic in another way.

Until the night of December 28, there was no intention on the part of the Ministry of Health to discuss the Ayuso Government's proposal in the Interterritorial Council the following day. This was confirmed to this newspaper by sources from the same Ministry. The great topic of this meeting between Carolina Darias and the Health Councilors was the review of the capacity in stadiums.

Before continuing, it is important to understand how the protocol that is followed to make decisions in the face of the pandemic works. The first link in the chain is the Report on Alerts and Preparedness and Response Plans, made up of Public Health technicians from the Autonomous Communities and the Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies (Ccaes), led by Fernando Simón.

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The Report is convened by the Ministry and works for the Public Health Commission. It is in charge of developing the technical documents to later be discussed. The second floor of the building is, precisely, the Public Health Commission, where the general directors of Public Health of the Autonomous Communities and the Ministry of Health are located. Some of its decisions are later sent to the Interterritorial Council, which is made up of the regional Health Councilors and the minister. The normal thing is that the meetings take place on different days, although on occasion the Report and the Commission have coincided.

On Wednesday, December 29, at 11 in the morning, the members of the Public Health Commission did not know that just three hours later they would be meeting to discuss the reduction of quarantines. Around that time, also convened urgently, the Alerts Conference proposed to postpone the decision for a week to have more data on the contagiousness and incubation of omicron. The Commission had a meeting scheduled for next week, not this one.

At 12:00, the Government summons the directors of Public Health to discuss the reduction of quarantines. In 120 minutes, they had to study the data, the recommendation of the Warning Panel and make a decision. At 2:00 p.m. the meeting began, where all the regions would unanimously support the reduction of isolation in asymptomatic covid positives to seven days, ignoring the expert presentation and supporting the proposal of the Ayuso Government. At 4:00 p.m. the Interterritorial Council would start rolling.

Sánchez joins the health ayusismo

The meetings of the three bodies had never been held on the same day. The Ministry of Health completely changed its version of Tuesday with that of Wednesday, making it clear that Pedro Sánchez wanted to run the one hundred meter dash to join another measure of health ayusismo. Moreover, we have been able to hear the president in recent days advocating "citizen responsibility" and "personal protection" for the remainder of the pandemic.

This change in trend was also clear when last week the Government boasted about the decision of the Public Health Commission to eliminate quarantines in vaccinated people who are close contact with covid positives, something that Fernando Simón's body had eliminated for cases of omicron . President Díaz Ayuso was the first to request such a measure, something that was described by the PSOE spokesman in Congress as an "occurrence".