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Spain calls on army convoys to send out Covid-19 vaccine and food supplies

The Spanish government will on Monday begin sending convoys carrying the COVID-19 vaccine and food supplies to reach areas cut off by Storm Filomena.

Published: 11 January 2021 10:07 CET
Spain calls on army convoys to send out Covid-19 vaccine and food supplies
Photo: AFP

The weekend saw the heaviest snowfall for half a century with over 600 roads cut off in the storm and hundreds stranded in their vehicles overnight.

But although the snowfall itself has stopped across much of Spain, forecasters warned of dangerous conditions in the coming days, with temperatures expected to plummet to minus 10ºC (14º F).

“We are committed to guarantee the supply of health, vaccines and food. Corridors have been opened to deliver the goods,” transport minister, Jose Luis Abalos, announced on Sunday.

The transport, storage and distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was a key priority, he said.

Priority was given over the weekend to clearing access to hospitals with volunteers joining emergency services and Military Emergency Unit (UME) to make them accessible.

Some healthcare staff made long journeys through the snow to reach work, prompting offers from 4X4 owners to drive them to work as well as organizing an SOS service to help those trapped.

“Not all heroes wear capes,” proclaimed El Confidencial newspaper, “Some drive 4X4s and have snow chains”.

Drivers volunteered to step in where ambulances could not and drive pregnant women to hospital, take critical patients to A and help those stranded on motorways get home.

One doctor trekked 17km through the snow just to get to work at a hospital in Madrid, a journey he described in a video posted on Twitter.

Meanwhile these two nurses, Paco and Monica left the house at 4.30am on Saturday morning to walk 22km through the snow for their shift at Madrid’s Hospital 12 de Octubre.

Another nurse made the 5km journey on foot in heavy snow from Boadilla del Monte, a town to the west of Madrid to Hospital Puerta del Hierro because roads were impassable.

While a nurse identified only as Teresa, was captured on film walking through deep snow on her way home after a shift at Gregorio Marañón Hospital.

 

 

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HEALTH

Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

Denmark's government has struck a deal with four other parties to raise the point in a pregnancy from which a foetus can be aborted from 12 weeks to 18 weeks, in the first big change to Danish abortion law in 50 years.

Published: 3 May 2024 08:06 CEST
Danish parties agree to raise abortion limit to 18 weeks

The government struck the deal with the Socialist Left Party, the Red Green Alliance, the Social Liberal Party and the Alternative party, last week with the formal announcement made on Monday  

“In terms of health, there is no evidence for the current week limit, nor is there anything to suggest that there will be significantly more or later abortions by moving the week limit,” Sophie Løhde, Denmark’s Minister of the Interior and Health, said in a press release announcing the deal.

The move follows the recommendations of Denmark’s Ethics Council, which in September 2023 proposed raising the term limit, pointing out that Denmark had one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Western Europe. 

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Under the deal, the seven parties, together with the Liberal Alliance and the Conservatives, have also entered into an agreement to replace the five regional abortion bodies with a new national abortion board, which will be based in Aarhus. 

From July 1st, 2025, this new board will be able to grant permission for abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy if there are special considerations to take into account. 

The parties have also agreed to grant 15-17-year-olds the right to have an abortion without parental consent or permission from the abortion board.

Marie Bjerre, Denmark’s minister for Digitalization and Equality, said in the press release that this followed logically from the age of sexual consent, which is 15 years old in Denmark. 

“Choosing whether to have an abortion is a difficult situation, and I hope that young women would get the support of their parents. But if there is disagreement, it must ultimately be the young woman’s own decision whether she wants to be a mother,” she said. 

The bill will be tabled in parliament over the coming year with the changes then coming into force on June 1st, 2025.

The right to free abortion was introduced in Denmark in 1973. 

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