Dr Fernando Simón, Director, Centre for Coordination of Health Alerts & Emergencies | EFE

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Last weekend the National Police caught numerous young people drinking in the streets of Madrid during the coronavirus State of Emergency and was abundantly clear from the sheer numbers out and about that if you give people an inch they will absolutely take a mile.

It's also worrying that at the very beginning of the de-escalation of the restrictions, so many people seem to have forgotten that Covid-19 can be fatal.

That's prompted Epidemiologist Fernando Simón, who’s Director of the Centre for Coordination of Health Alerts & Emergencies to deliver a reminder to young people and to society in general.

“I understand that people who’ve not suffered from the virus, or never been affected by it in their environment, have less perception of fear," he said. "Young people meeting and maintaining social distancing is not dangerous, the problem is that if they don’t keep their distance, they themselves may not be infected, but they could transmit the disease to other people."

Dr Simón said not paying attention to the coronavirus restrictions could also result in a resurgence of the disease.

I can understand that people want to go out and expand their horizons. We have made an exceptional effort together and now the number of new cases is dropping very fast, so it would be very sad if we lost everything we have gained just because people didn’t stay far enough away from each other.

Dr Simón again appealed for prudence and compliance with the Covid-19 regulations to avoid a setback of the disease in Spain.

“We know that this epidemic is much more explosive than anyone thought. Taking a step back would be terrible for the population and for the Healthcare workers who have risked their lives and I don't think anyone could bear to go through this again,” he said.