With some emergency services already stressed and without a common strategy as the Ministry of Health intended, each community has deployed its own plan to mitigate the impact of respiratory viruses, with measures ranging from recover the mask in health centers to increase the number of beds.
After enduring Christmas at low levels, the flu, Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season has started the year with an increase in the incidenceespecially the first, which has almost doubled the number of hospitalizations compared to those registered in the last week of 2024.
The data published this Friday by the Carlos III Health Institute showed a growth in 49% of the incidence of infections respiratory infections in Primary Care—from 562.9/100,000 inhabitants to 639.8 cases—in the first week of 2025. In hospitals, it has risen from 19.7 to 23.
Of all, the flu is the one that has advanced the most strongly, although at a slower and less intense pace than last season; Despite this, the increase in serious cases has been noticeable in hospital emergencies for days, some of which are already collapsing.
To bury this image that is repeated every year in hospitals, the Ministry of Health proposed to the communities a common roadmap with homogeneous measures against the winter virus epidemic. He thus intended to avoid what he had to do last year, when he ended up imposing the use of masks in health centers throughout the country.
The ministerial and regional technicians managed to advance a document of measures that, however, did not later pass the filter of the Public Health Commission, where the general directors of the PP autonomies They refused to vote for it.
The department he heads Monica Garcia ruled out resorting to imposing measures again but, in the absence of a common strategy, opted to publish the aforementioned document in the form of recommendations, including the gradual use of masks as the epidemic progresses or the withdrawal of workers from residential centers who are in contact with vulnerable people.
Aside from this, the ministries have been implementing their own contingency plans depending on your epidemiological situationwhich is not the same in all of them.
Normality in Asturias or Castilla-La Mancha
Andalusia activates the High Frequency Plan at the beginning of December, which consists of four phases depending on demand. In addition, an instruction from July 2023 on mask in the hospital environment, which advises responsible use when infected.
In Aragon The epidemic threshold of flu cases has been exceeded with 75.5/100,000 inhabitants; The General Directorate of Public Health has sent an instruction to health professionals in medical, socio-health and social services centers that recommends the mask, which they can make mandatory if their management so decides.
The situation in Asturias remains normal, and therefore no extraordinary measures have been adopted.
Balearics will activate 83 beds in three public hospitals in Mallorca. However, according to the regional government, the archipelago is in a moderate epidemic phase.
The Canarian public hospitals keep their contingency plans active with measures such as incorporating reinforcement personnel and expanding the capacity of the units. Home Hospitalization Units. Since mid-December, the recommendation to use a mask in vulnerable areas such as chemotherapy treatment rooms, emergencies, transplant units and ICUs has been in force.
Castilla-La Mancha, which expects the peak in two weeks, has not planned special measures except to monitor the evolution, because now the flu incidence rate (29.2) is much lower than that of the two previous campaigns.
In Castile and Leónwith the flu still at low intensity levels and a peak that has a month or a month and a half left, its fourteen public hospitals will implement their own contingency plans when necessary. At the moment no problems have been detected in the emergency room, Ministry sources explain.
Catalonia, Madrid and Valencian Community
Cataloniawhere the increase in flu is translating into greater pressure on these services, believes that the cases do not exceed those of other years, and therefore rules out taking extraordinary measures such as new rules on the use of masks.
In the Valencian Community It is the Preventive Medicine services that adopt preventive measures; Some hospitals – the General of Alicante, the General of Valencia or the Torrevieja – have sent internal circulars in which they recommend expand the mandatory nature of face masks for staff and patients in some areas and highlight the importance of increasing vaccination coverage.
Consultations in Primary in Galicia increased by 21%, as did the purchase of associated medications in pharmacies, but their emergencies are not collapsed. The evolution of the flu is replicating the behavior it had in 2019 and suggests that the peak will be reached at the end of the month.
The Satse nursing union denounces that emergencies of most public hospitals Madrid, such as Ramón y Cajal, Móstoles, Infanta Leonor or Gregorio Marañón, are at their limit or have been surpassed. However, Ministry sources assure that there is no collapse and that the winter plan is working.
Murcia andIt is reinforcing the devices based on needs, since the pressure on care has increased markedly in recent days, so it is reorganizing patient care and increasing the number of beds.
Navarre On December 9, it activated different actions adapted to each hospital and the Primary Care network, which contemplates the reinforcement of personnel in services and critical moments and the expansion of beds as the available ones are occupied.
the Basque Country It has already opened 282 additional beds although it could reach up to 508; In addition, it has enabled observation and pre-admission areas in the emergency room and, out of caution, the surgical activity has been rescheduled, although this measure does not affect cancer patients or patients with cardiac problems.
Rioja On Tuesday, it activated level 2 of the Contingency Plan in its health centers, which plans to double beds in a control room on the sixth floor of the San Pedro de Logroño University Hospital and enable the Post Discharge Unit to speed up the availability of rooms. The Ministry of Health recommends a mask for professionals and users of health centers.
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