“The city of Torrevieja does not deserve this treatment and at least I wanted to share my indignation with everyone,” says Mayor Eduardo Dolón (PP) in a video.
The mayor of Torrevieja, Eduardo Dolón (PP), says he is absolutely outraged by the decision of the Ministry of Health in refusing the city permission to carry out coronavirus seroprevalence tests on the city’s 1,100 schoolteachers which were scheduled to take place on Wednesday at the Municipal Leisure Centre (CMO).
The General Director of Research and Health Inspection of the Generalitat Valenciana, Javier Santos Burgos, sent an official letter to the council that was only received by the Department of Education and Health hours before the tests were due to take place.
The Council has explained in a statement that having consulted with the Council’s Legal Department it must abide by the decision in order to ensure that it is not guilty of a crime of disobedience, which according to Dolón is “something that, of course it would never do”.
He continued, “They have ignored the mayor’s office once again. They have not addressed it directly nor have they even made a simple phone call or sent a WhatsApp message”, referring to the fact that the communication was made by email to the electronic headquarters.
The mayor added that these tests have been widely requested by the educational community and that “they would have helped to guarantee a safer return to school.” At the same time, he added that “this refusal is even more flagrant, which goes to show the sectarianism of the Generalitat, because at no time was its implementation going to involve any expense to the municipal budget”.
Dolón said, “this unfortunate decision certifies that ideology is more important for the Valencian Government than the health of the general public, children, families and teachers in the city of Torrevieja.”
A meeting is to be held on Thursday to discuss the situation following the ministry’s response.
Earlier in the week the Orihuela Council intimated that it too was considering carrying out PCR tests on it’s teachers and school staff but, to date, it has had no contact with the Generalitat on the subject.
