Madeiran hotelier Carlos Fernando Martins published a text on his Facebook page urging that the president of the Regional Government, Miguel Albuquerque, take preventive measures regarding the coronavirus, “however unpopular they may be”.
Here is the full transcript of that publication:
“Miguel Albuquerque, receives this message from a Madeiran, who lives and works in Madrid, in a state of anxiety not recommended. The lack of preventive, courageous and above all necessary measures were not taken at the right time and now we are reacting to the problem because we don’t prevent it.
The situation is extremely serious, with 1,050 affected in Madrid alone, the widespread tension causes environments of some panic, to the point that we are considering closing Madrid by air, land and sea. I do not doubt one minute of your abilities, but I could not fail to share with you the difficult time that we are going through, convinced that the worst is yet to come, but with the necessary humility to alert you to what can happen in Portugal and in particularly in our island.
I can assure you that all the preventive measures you can take immediately, however unpopular they may be, make you start winning the coronavirus 1-0 … and worse than the coronavirus are the phobias that this causes in people – empty supermarkets, aggressiveness, blocked cities, economy of tracks, etc !!!. Do not hesitate for a minute, when you think this is under control, the numbers will skyrocket and there is no one else who can control the situation.
A hug and count on me to tell you this experience that we do not know very well or when or how it will end, but with the certainty that something else we could have done to avoid all this “.