In 'RNE mornings' they analyze the relationship between poverty and the expansion of the coronavirus, looking at the example of what is happening in Mauritania, one of the Sahel countries most affected by COVID-19, and in Lleida, where the precarious conditions of the irregular workers of the field have caused several outbreaks that have forced the Segrià region to be confined.

Dr. José Luis Casado, associate doctor of the infectious diseases service of the Ramón y Cajal hospital in Madrid, is part of the Spanish health team that is in Nouakchott on a mission to support the Mauritanian health system. Casado has assured that the country has a very good health structure, but they need clearer resources and protocols. "It has less than 30 ICU beds and in some hospitals there are only one or two ventilators." Casado explained that the population has enough internalized the use of the mask and handwashing, but that it is harder for them to understand the importance of keeping the safety distance. "It is hard for him to assume, for example, that they have to leave a relative alone in the emergency room. In addition, he has recognized that it is impossible to control that people who ride a canoe to Spain do not have the disease. "They are desperate people who throw themselves into the sea, who have been overcrowded and who are in a legal situation. The only solution is to control the epidemic throughout the country, "explained Casado, who stresses that" poverty carries more risk of contracting any disease and in this case more evident. "

In addition, we have discussed the situation of the seasonal workers in Lleida with Fernando García Benavides, professor of Public Health at the Pompeu Fabra University and former president of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology, who has ensured that it is essential to regularize the situation of these workers. “They cannot continue being irregular, they need to be identified, to have papers, because that will open the doors of the rest of the system. That people sleep on the street is not acceptable in a country like ours, "said García Benavides, who believes that" the first phase revealed the situation of nursing homes and the second is bringing to light the precarious situation of irregular workers. ” García Benavides has insisted that it is essential to enhance occupational risk prevention services, especially in companies where prolonged contacts occur in closed spaces. "We have to prevent, there are many open transmission lines, the measure may be confinement again," he concluded.

Link to the interview:  https://mediavod-lvlt.rtve.es/resources/TE_SLMIAEN/mp3/4/5/1594105607854.mp3