The president considers that the sixth wave deserves a reflection on the attention to the mildest cases
The brutal increase in infections caused by the Omicron variant throughout the country leads the authorities to rethink the way to combat the coronavirus pandemic from Primary Care, which is absolutely overwhelmed these weeks. The central government and some medical organizations have opened the debate on the possibility of modifying some protocols, in order to treat Covid as another infectious disease from a health point of view. “Flu” is the concept that has been coined.
The Executive of the nation and the autonomous communities will analyze in their next meetings – today the Interterritorial Health Council is summoned – if a turn in the strategy is adopted. For his words yesterday during an appearance at the Palace of San Esteban, the president of the Community, Fernando López Miras, welcomes making “a reflection” on some practices carried out so far, especially the medical follow-up of all patients Covid, which today in the Region reaches 30,786, the highest figure since everything began in March 2020.
Family doctors warn that they spend most of the day on the virus, which affects other problems
López Miras assures that vaccination and the apparent lower severity of the new predominant variant mean that the percentage of hospitalizations and deaths is lower than other waves in proportion to the number of infected. Thus, it is observed that vaccinated and non-vulnerable people now pass the disease with milder effects. Therefore, “this may lead us to reflect on whether the most accentuated protection could be focused on the most vulnerable groups,” declared the Chief Executive. In any case, the President of the Community indicates that “what we have to do is strictly and scrupulously follow the guidelines set by health professionals, epidemiologists and those responsible for public health.”
“This is being chaos”
This debate on ‘flu-like’ Covid-19, which the WHO sees as still premature, comes out as a result of a statement from the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (Semfyc), which even bets on resuming the old normality as we knew it before March 2020, without restrictions and without masks. “The objective should be to treat Covid as we do with the flu: clinical diagnosis and general recommendations on self-care and prevention of infections to vulnerable people, reserving health care for people who need it due to their symptoms or vulnerability. Only then can we properly serve those who really need it. ”
Semfyc’s position is not shared by other medical associations. Not even inside does it produce unanimity. The Semyfc delegate in the Region, Jesús Abenza, affirms that he shares most of the things in the recently published document, but expresses his “reluctance” to compare the Covid with the flu “because we have never had this amount of hospitalizations, admissions with the flu in ICU and deaths “.
Of course, Abenza warns that “the situation cannot continue like this” in Primary Care, where health professionals currently dedicate almost all of their day to monitoring Covid patients, with which many populations with different problems are displaced to a background”.
“This sixth wave is being a real chaos,” laments the family doctor, who warns that so many changes in the protocols “drive doctors and patients crazy.”
Mass screening will continue for two more weeks
The Primary Care Emergency Services (SUAP) of the Region, reinforced by teams from 061, will continue to carry out mass screening sessions using antigen tests for the next two weeks. The reinforcement of these points is carried out to complement the work carried out by both the SUAPs themselves, the 061, as well as health centers, Covid points and hospital emergency doors, to carry out tests. The Ministry of Health calls on the population to take precautionary measures to avoid contagion.
Today Wednesday there will be tests, from five in the afternoon to nine at night, in Murcia San Andrés, Cartagena Este, Lorca Sutullena, Cehegín, Jumilla, San Pedro del Pinatar and Molina de Segura
.