2024-01-05 16:42:14
The increase in flu and other respiratory viruses has led the Ministry of Health to convene an Interterritorial Health Council next Monday in which it will ask the autonomies to mandatory use of masks in health centers while the peak of the epidemic lasts. Some communities have already taken this step that health professionals requested yesterday
File image of pedestrians on a street in the center of Madrid with and without masks. EFE/ Juan Carlos Hidalgo
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has announced that her department will request the autonomous communities to make the use of masks in health centers mandatory in the face of the spread of the flu, but will do so in a “transitional manner”, and in line with what was implemented in Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia.
As reported to EFE by the Ministry of Healthit would be a temporary measure in health and social health centers “while the epidemic peak of influenza A and other respiratory viruses lasts”, which is expected to reach its maximum in the third week of January.
García will convey this request to the communities next Monday, January 8, in an extraordinary plenary session of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System in which they will seek to “unify criteria” and evaluate measures in the face of the resurgence of respiratory viruses, which the communities should be adopted jointly.
In an audio message sent to the media, the minister specified that this meeting with the councilors is intended to take coordinated actions in the face of these epidemic peaks and recalled that each community has “the competence and responsibility to implement measures appropriate to their circumstances.” individuals.”
“They are the ones who are on the front line and know their needs best,” the minister acknowledged, while emphasizing that the Ministry’s role will be to “provide maximum support” and coordinate everything in its power, respecting the exercise of their powers.
To this end, he has advanced that they will design “from now on and jointly” action plans for next winter with the aim of helping communities to minimize these situations “and not normalize the collapses of the health system.”
“We know that winter flu is contained in the months before winter,” he added.
According to the latest report from the Carlos III Health Institute, the global incidence of respiratory virus infection is close to 1,000 cases per one hundred thousand inhabitants, although the hospitalization rate remains below 30 cases per one hundred thousand inhabitants.
Flu surge: masks on hand
The minister has insisted that, on these dates, it is “crucial” to have a mask on hand, and this recommendation is especially relevant in hospitals, health centers and nursing homes, but also in situations of indoor crowds.
Mónica García has appealed to common sense and the resilient spirit demonstrated during the pandemic.
The mandatory nature of the mask in health centers in the face of the advance of respiratory viruses and flu has the endorsement of Family Medicine societies, the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES) and the Federation of Defense Associations of Public Health (FADSP), which even suggest extending this measure to public transportation and spaces without adequate ventilation, given the effectiveness demonstrated during the pandemic.
In addition to Catalonia, the Valencian Community and Murcia, which have implemented it as mandatory in health and socio-health centres, Castilla-La Mancha has announced this Friday that it will adopt the measures that “the experts establish”.
The rest of the autonomies choose to recommend the use of masks in symptomatic people to stop transmission, especially to the most vulnerable groups.
The spokesperson for Más Madrid in the Madrid Assembly, Monica García, new Minister of Health. EFE/ Sergio Pérez
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