The Mayor of Pilar de la Horadada, José María Pérez has sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking for a consignment of face masks for the local population.
The Council has so far been able to provide 20,000 masks for distribution among health, police and civil protection officers, in addition to coordinating the delivery of 400 protective screens and 300 gowns.
In the unwritten manual on how municipalities must cope with the coronavirus pandemic, the next stage, after demanding that the public complies with the state of alarm and confinement, is to provide face masks for all residents, especially now that the government is saying how important it is that they be worn by everyone who ventures out in public.
Small towns such as Bigastro and Redován in the Vega Baja, have already been able to provide this “supply” from the outset, with a production of volunteers and donations from local companies that have enabled them to meet their objective. Others, with more limitations, have given priority to those who are “on the front line” fighting against the virus – health workers, pharmacies, policemen – and other at risk groups, especially the elderly.
But for the bigger towns and cities, and their large populations, it can be very difficult. That is why Pilar de la Horadada, with it’s 22,000 residents, is asking for help from central government. Mayor José María Pérez has gone straight to the top and asked the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, for 50,000 masks to protect the local population. He did say that the municipality has enough resources to assume its cost and will pay for any consignment.
In the municipality, which has a large community of foreign residents and residents with second homes, there have been 12 infections with coronavirus and one death.
Volunteers in Pilar de la Horadada, through Civil Protection, have already produced 20,000 masks, 400 3D printed protective screens Makers and 300 sanitary gowns. But it’s not enough.
José María Pérez, in his letter to the Prime Minister, usesa tone of institutional loyalty “to thank the effort that the Government is making to control the pandemic. He asks him to send 50,000 masks to cover the entire population, “since we are preparing a distribution plan so that they can reach all the residents who do not have them.”
Pérez says that the solidarity among the people from Pilar “has been overwhelming, but it is impossible for us to provide everyone in the entire town with material. The residents do not stop day or night. They are sewing homemade masks for their relatives, neighbours and friends, but it is not enough.
Civil Protection volunteers are disinfecting and distributing them, prioritising basic municipal social services, security forces, citizen service personnel, and health personnel. The City Council has also boughta number of masks, but it is still not enough. “For this reason, he says in his letter that it” requires “the support of the central government to be able to supply” all the residents of the municipality of Pilar de la Horadada with masks as a preventive measure.
In a footnote the mayor wrote, “Awaiting your news, and the arrival of the long-awaited masks for the entire population, I remind you that you have us at your entire disposal in everything that we can contribute to improve the situation and reduce the impact of this crisis.”
