The Valencian Community and Catalonia impose the mandatory use of masks in hospitals and health centers

The last weekly sentinel surveillance report for IRAs and SARI: Flu, Covid-19 and other respiratory viruses in 2023 marked a global rate of Acute Respiratory Infection in Primary Care of 908.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, when the previous week the figure It was 806.

The Catalan Health Minister, Manel Balcells, has reported through the social network X that the use of a mask will be mandatory to go to health centers in Catalonia. He has specified that the measure comes due to the “increase in respiratory viruses.” Sources from the department explain to La Vanguardia that although they are finalizing the resolution, the idea is that the measure will be applied starting today.

The Valencian Community has also taken the same measure and has already established the protocol to follow regarding the use of the mask. In this way, the obligation is established in the following cases:

– Symptomatic people in shared spaces

– Professionals who care for symptomatic cases

– Hospital and primary care emergencies

– In places where patients and families gather, such as waiting rooms

– Rest of the situations generally intended to protect vulnerable people, the management of the health departments, supported by their own protocols and the recommendations of the Preventive Medicine services, may establish the mandatory use of the mask in an additional manner. to the established indications.

At the national level, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, has convened an extraordinary Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS) to address with all regional executives “the peaks of respiratory viruses.” The head of the branch seeks that this meeting, which will be held next Monday, January 8, helps to “unify criteria” in all territories in relation to the way in which each one manages the situation.