The Diplomat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked all Embassies and Consular Offices to update regularly and “by telegram” the information on the evolution of the pandemic and to send it to the new Ambassador-at-Large for the International Crisis COVID-19 and Global Health, the physician and diplomat Jesús Santos Aguado.
As explained yesterday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, during a joint press conference with his Luxembourg counterpart, Jean Asselborn, at the Palacio de Viana in Madrid, the new ambassador will act “as a focal point” within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and “in constant contact with the Ministry of Health” and with the different Spanish Embassies.
Likewise, the Minister informed that yesterday he had given “instructions to all the Spanish Embassies in the world so that, punctually, in Europe on a daily basis and in the rest of the world on a weekly basis, they keep informing about the incidence of COVID in those countries, how the different variants are evolving and the restrictive measures that may be taken in this regard”, in order to “be able to take the necessary measures with respect to the Spaniards who are displaced there, as soon as possible and without any surprise and, in general, to be able to take the pulse of how this pandemic is progressing in the world in an even more precise manner”.
In the Ministry’s instructions, to which The Diplomat had access, the Ministry states that “in view of the progressive global expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the appearance of the new Omicron variant, it reiterates to all Embassies and Consular Offices the need to update by telegram the information” on various issues, such as the accumulated incidence, the percentage of vaccinated population, the mortality rate and ICU occupation, the availability of places in hospitals and respirators, the sequencing capacity of new variants, containment measures, restrictions on mobility, the requirement of the COVID Digital Certificate, the requirements for entry and exit from the country concerned, possible measures to limit or suspend air and sea connections with other countries or to close land borders and airspace, and the possible inclusion of Spain on the red list (or equivalent) of countries with a high incidence of the virus.
Likewise, the instructions add, all Embassies and Consular Offices must “designate a focal point” in charge of the management of the information, whose name and contact details must also be communicated to the Undersecretariat, to the General Directorate of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs and to Ambassador Jesús Santos Aguado. All updates should be sent by the ambassador or head of mission “on a daily basis, in the case of a European country, as the epicenter of the pandemic is currently located in that continent, and on a weekly basis for the rest of the countries”. These updates sent by telegram should be included, in turn, in the proposed Travel Recommendations sent by that Embassy by telegram and by e-mail.
The sending of these instructions has coincided with the appointment, by the Council of Ministers, of Jesús Santos Aguado to the newly created position of Ambassador-at-Large for the International Crisis COVID 19 and Global Health. Apart from being a diplomat (since 1992) and former ambassador to Guinea and Mauritania, Santos Aguado began his professional career as a primary care physician in Spain and worked in Equatorial Guinea as a member of the Spanish Red Cross. As a researcher in Molecular Biology and Immunology, he has worked in the USA (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School) and Spain (Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas).
