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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

Are Danes cutting back on cigarettes and alcohol?

Danish stores sold a significantly lower quantity of alcohol and cigarettes over the counter last year, new data from Statistics Denmark show.

Published: 14 June 2024 07:42 CEST
Are Danes cutting back on cigarettes and alcohol?

Some 3,852 cigarettes were sold year, which amounts to 804 per person over the age of 18. But that compares to a figures of 854 per person on 2022.

Cigarette sales in Denmark have been declining since 2018.

Sales of sprits, beer and wine fell by 7.8 percent, 5.3 percent and 0.9 percent respectively.

Danish business sold the equivalent of 44.4 million litres of pure alcohol, which works out at 11.9 units per week on average for each person over the age of 18.

Although that is a lower value than in 2022, it still exceeds the amount recommended by the Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen).

The Health Authority recommends that adults over 18 drink no more than 10 units per week and no more than four in a single day.

READ ALSO: Should Denmark raise the minimum age for buying alcohol?

“The numbers are still too high and it’s an average that could have a skewed distribution,” University of Southern Denmark professor, Janne Tholstrup, said in relation to the alcohol sales figures. Tholstrup has published research on Denmark’s alcohol culture.

That is in spite of a 30-year-trend of falling alcohol consumption, according to the professor.

“The majority of Danes stay under the recommended 10 unite per week. That means there is a large group with a persistently excessive consumption of alcohol,” she said.

The Statistics Denmark figures also show that sales of loose tobacco – such as the type used in roll-up cigarettes and pipes – also fell last year. Some 58 tonnes less were sold compared to 2022.

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