The Government of the Community of Madrid has announced that it will launch “as soon as possible” an investigation commission in the Assembly on the protocol of control of entrances at Barajas airport, in view of the 731 imported cases of Covid. According to data from the Ministry of Health, just last April there were a total of 152 entries of infected through the airport, most of them from the American continent. A record in the pandemic. At that time, the Government of Pedro Sánchez defended that the controls were completely effective. “We do not know what these protocols are like, we do not have information of any kind, we do not know what percentage of travelers are tested for Covid”, assured the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, when announcing this next commission of investigation.Madrid does not have powers over the controls in Barajas – they are from the Ministry of Development – and neither can it intensify the screening that is carried out. He does not know how many travelers are required to obtain a negative PCR certificate or how many are subjected to random tests. But, nevertheless, he does know how many people test positive once they leave the physical limits of the airport, according to the information handled by the General Sub-Directorate of Epidemiology of the Community of Madrid, from May 11, 2020 to May 9, 2021 “a total of 731 imported cases confirmed with active infection by Covid-19 have been detected in the Community of Madrid.” Sources from the Madrid Executive explain that practically all arrived by air. Of the total cases, 55.4% correspond to men and 68.7% of the cases correspond to the age group between 30 and 69 years.”An imported case is considered to be one that has remained outside of Spain throughout the incubation period of the disease,” says the Ministry of Health. The official data tables of the Community show the origin of these 731 cases and their distribution in the calendar. Only during the month of April there were 152 infected who entered Madrid from abroad by air. A total of 91 of those cases came from the American continent. Most of them, 36, from Colombia. Mexico (14), Argentina (12) and the Dominican Republic (10) concentrated the rest of the cases. To them we must add the 44 infections from Europe and the 17 from the rest of the countries. Detail of imported cases in the Community of Madrid. Record figures Between January and March 2021, a total of 251 cases were counted, that is, an average of 83 cases per month. The April figures assume that the controls in Barajas have allowed the passage of twice as many imported cases, the same happens with the average number of imported cases that Madrid registered between May and December 2020: a total of 305 cases passed through the doors exit from Barajas with the virus. An average of 43 cases per month. Three times less than those registered in April, while the Government turned a deaf ear to the Community’s requests to increase controls at the airport. These figures are alarming, since they show that controls in April have allowed the arrival of a significant number of infected. It should be remembered that the Government applied a forced perimeter closure to Madrid in April to prevent the departure of Madrilenians to other provinces coinciding with Holy Week.A period after which the infections broke their downward trend and began their ascent. Infections, hospitalizations and employment in ICUs increased. Controls in Barajas «To be more efficient and, above all, to protect citizens for the summer, this is important to study. We need to know what measures are being put in place to control the entry of the virus, how many passengers have finally been affected, where these cases are going and, above all, have more information about it because there has been an absolute lack of transparency in this regard. “, Explained Isabel Díaz Ayuso. In addition, Isabel Díaz Ayuso recalled that the Community of Madrid already requested a year ago” an action to continue protecting citizens, since the Madrid-Barajas international airport is one of the most transit of the world and we have had practically no information.
