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“We have to beg, pray that we take all the necessary measures, that we take seriously that citizens have the best spirit of understanding.”
Although this morning he insisted on the warlike metaphors when assuring that “The battle for Santiago is the crucial battle in the war against the coronavirus”, this noon the Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, He appealed to the plea to convince the public that in the face of the alarming increase in infections with coronavirus, it is not time to relax prevention measures.
The epidemiological report released this morning – which confirmed 34,381 cases nationwide with a peak of 2,660 new infections – forced the currency to accept a measure that it resisted for weeks: decree general quarantine throughout the Metropolitan, as the mayors had been asking for it. With the announcement, the government released a new communicational tone, less focused on auspicious results than it was a few weeks ago, and which aims to convey the real danger posed by the rapid spread of the virus.
In La Moneda and in the Minsal, they are reluctant to consider the strategy of sectorized and dynamic quarantines that they bet on since Chile entered phase four of the pandemic as a failure. In the government they defend that the modality has given results in the rest of the country and they repeatedly cite the case of Osorno, which ceased to be one of the most worrying sources of contagion. But the little respect for quarantine led the Executive to a communicational turn.
In the face of such an aggravation of the pandemic picture, La Moneda was a hotbed of meetings, analyzes and even domestic measures of care this morning. The urgent thing now, they say in the Palace, is to start a broad communication campaign in which they will seek to “appeal to the responsibility” of the population. But also face criticism of the government’s handling of this phase of the crisis. And it is still painful that from the Executive the concept of “new normality” was coined.
In the first – according to unofficial versions that come from the Executive headquarters – it is expected that during the remainder of today the details of a campaign that will seek to capture the change in tone with which the Executive will address the citizenship. This should be ready between today and tomorrow, and will consist of a deployment on several levels, including audiovisual pieces and content on social networks.
According to these same voices, the emphasis will be on insisting, calling and convincing people to adopt a responsible attitude towards what is happening and what is coming. The idea is in line with the tone used this morning by Mañalich.
One of the points on the table is also to emphasize that the government is aware that they are very tough measures and that they will not be easy to follow for those facing general quarantine in very adverse conditions or under overcrowding.
Of course, they also show that within the tone with which this has been addressed in the talks indoors, it has been argued that the government cannot have a superb attitude either. And that it was known that at some point drastic measures such as those announced today had to be taken, especially after the epidemiological report known yesterday.
At this point they underline in the government that the authority has taken all the necessary precautions and that it has been assisted by specialists, and that it has looked at indicators and the sociodemographic reality of each commune. But that the attitude of many of not respecting quarantines and asking for too many permits has affected what happened.
At the time of publishing this note, it was not yet decided whether as part of this deployment, President Sebastián Piñera will also go to the country again. What has happened is that precautions were taken at the Palacio after one of the infected television cameramen was detected. For example, access to the Second Floor, where the president’s advisers work, would have been restricted, as would the care for him.
The need for a change in the government’s communication strategy was the subject of yesterday’s Covid social roundtable meeting in which the president of the Chilean Medical College, Izkia Siches, participated; the rector of the University of Chile, Ennio Vivaldi; the rector of the Catholic University of Chile, Ignacio Sánchez; the mayor of La Granja and representative of the Chilean Association of Municipalities (ACHM), Felipe Delpín; the mayor of Central Station and president of the Association of Municipalities of Chile (AMUCH), Rodrigo Delgado; the mayor of Pirque and president of the Association of Rural Municipalities (AMUR), Cristián Balmaceda; the former President of the Medical College, Enrique Paris; the former Minister of Health Carmen Castillo; and the WHO-PAHO representative in Chile, Fernando Leanes.
Among the members of the instance there was consensus that May will be a hard month and that the increase of contagions in the MRI forces the government to change the message. It was argued that this is not the time to focus the ads on the number of beds or fans that have been purchased, but rather that it is necessary to make the citizens understand that not complying with the protection and social distancing measures puts their lives at risk.
“We have to communicate that people have to put themselves in the role that if they are young, perhaps nothing will happen to them, but if they go home with the virus and infect an older adult, they will kill them. Insist on respect for quarantine, social distancing and the use of masks, “says Dr. Enrique Paris, a member of the body.
Yesterday the Social table adopted several measures to contribute to the communicational work of the Executive. It was first agreed to establish closer contact with the press, so as to more effectively convey the group’s analysis.
Likewise, the details of the content of the website of the Social Table that will be disseminated through the government platform and that seeks to make available to the citizens the working documents of the instance and the work of the sub-working tables were completed. .
Consulted by the Third PM, the president of the Medical College, Izkia Siches, agrees on the need for new communicational emphases. “As a Medical College we have repeatedly asked to improve risk communication, but today, in the critical situation we are in, we have to make an effort to reduce new cases … We need to improve the government’s message, perhaps through actors in civil society or communication faces that allow us to mount the message well and, on the other hand, to analyze well the limitations that citizens have to remain in confinement “.
From the Minsal they assure that the system has been reinforced for the coming critical weeks. They aim in particular at the reinforcement of human capital in the health network through the hiring of 8 thousand people. 500 are doctors, 3,500 health professionals and more than 2,500 paramedical technicians, as well as personnel who provide support in administrative areas.
They also point to increased training for health personnel. “To date, they say, there are 39,000 connections to these trainings. Of those, 24 thousand connections to intensive training; more than 2,000 in anesthesia and 13,000 primary health care connections ”.
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