The Cabildo of Lanzarote celebrated this Saturday, October 15, in Jameos del Agua, an act in recognition of the workers of various fields in tribute to their "dedication and commitment" in the work carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event was attended by the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo, accompanied by the Minister of Health of the Government of Spain, Carolina Darias and the Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo. The three of them spoke to convey their sincere congratulations to all those distinguished for their unconditional work during the pandemic.”
Dolores Corujo expressed that, “with the arrival of COVID-19, life seemed to stop and we were overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty, but not all activities stopped, nor did all people stay locked in their homes.”
“These people continued working after the arrival of COVID-19 because the tasks they perform are so vital for our society to function, that these workers continued to perform them during the biggest public health crisis that has been seen in a century,” he said.
“The doctors, nurses and other health personnel remained in their posts; the street and sidewalk cleaners; the transporters; the food replenishers and supermarket cashiers; the assistants in the nursing homes; the troops of the Military Emergency Unit; the operators of the home waste collection service; the State Security Forces and Corps; the workers of the water treatment plant and the power plant; the Civil Protection volunteers, among many other people,” recalled the president.
“We have contracted an infinite debt of gratitude with all these people, and today is the day to recognize them and thank them for their dedication and commitment. I hope for a healthier, safer and fairer future, because that is the best guarantee to reduce the risk of such an episode happening again,” Corujo concluded.
For her part, Darias highlighted “the hard work of all the people who remained at the foot of the canyon during this stage and the efforts and risks they endured so that the whole country could move forward, being thanks to citizen collaboration in all its senses that today we can say that we are installed again in normality.”
The Minister of Health has recognized the society of Lanzarote for managing to continue advancing, for not giving up, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing to advance to have a better society, a country, a Canary Islands and a Lanzarote. “Today we changed the meaning of applause to applaud society because there is no more important objective than improving people's lives,” the minister assured and, paraphrasing César Manrique, said that “utopia is waiting for us.”
During the ceremony, the work of the Security and Emergency services, the employees of Health and Education, the Public Services and Cleaning and the Associations and NGOs was recognized. In addition, an emotional tribute was paid to the victims who died as a result of COVID-19.
The minister recalled that everything began to change on December 18, 2020 when the Public Health Commission, where the autonomous communities, the Ministry of Health and the scientific societies are represented, approved the first Vaccination Strategy that led to the start of the campaign on December 26.
She recalled that the first woman in Lanzarote to receive the vaccine was María del Pilar Pérez. Today, Spain is an international benchmark for vaccination with 92.8% of people with a complete regimen and with more than 80% of those over 40 with booster doses. “Now the challenge continues,” the minister assured and recalled that the new variants, the need to have adapted vaccines and the circulation of respiratory viruses has led us to start the new vaccination campaign of the second booster dose that began on September 26 with those over 80 years of age and people in residences.
“Today I look to the future, which is here,” Darias asserted to insist that it is “important to vaccinate, vaccinate and vaccinate” to continue achieving a high rate of immunity, which has allowed us to be a world benchmark and enjoy this normality that can be seen in an act like tonight's. The minister thanked all the award-winning entities for their work and the whole society for their constant commitment and, especially, the health professionals. In addition, she had words of support for the families of those who died as a result of COVID-19.
Darias stressed that the pandemic has put the value of the public in the spotlight because “talking about public health is talking about life and one of the essential pillars of the Welfare State.” The pandemic has demonstrated the resilience of the National Health System but has also shown the areas for improvement that have become challenges for the Government. For this reason, the minister announced, legislative reforms are being promoted to remain at the forefront with a robust system.
General State Budgets
In this sense, she highlighted that in the draft General State Budgets for 2023 there are 800 million euros allocated to Primary Care, the backbone of the NHS. In addition, the Government is working on improving preventive capacity with the reform of the Public Health System, with the implementation of a new Public Health Surveillance System and with the creation of the State Public Health Agency.
Darias also related that the Government has placed Mental Health at the center of its public policies, an epidemic silenced for too long. “We have gone from silence to debate; and from debate to action,” the minister assured and explained that her department has updated the Mental Health Strategy that had not been updated for more than 12 years.
In this sense, the Government has approved a Mental Health Plan endowed with 100 million euros, which includes actions as important as the launch of the suicide behavior care line, 024, which in just five months has attended more than 55,000 calls; has referred more than 2,000 calls to 112 and has detected 1,000 calls of very high risk or suicides in progress.
