The Minister of Health, José Miñones, has announced that the report of the experts regarding the the elimination of the mandatory nature of the mask in health centers and pharmacies; although he has reiterated that the latest decision is made by the experts from the Health Alerts and Emergencies Coordination Center.
With the report of the experts and the decision of the autonomous communities (possibly in favor, although according to Health, there will be no vote as it is an information point), the Ministry of Health will submit to the Council of Ministers its proposal to remove the masks from the spaces toilets in which it is still maintained, modifying the current Royal Decree. The doubt is, however, whether the experts will propose their end in hospitals and social health centers, such as nursing homes. In the event that they are maintained because they are spaces with vulnerable people, hospitals and residences would remain the only place where this garment would be mandatory.
This has been pronounced in an interview on RNE collected by Europa Press. “You have to do it rigorously, you have to do it seriously,” she said, adding that the experts will be the ones to guide the withdrawal process; that is, if it is done “prolongedly, definitively or in stages”.
Thus, the minister has predicted that Spain is “closer” to a “recommended” use before a “mandatory” use of the mask in these centers, although he has defended its use, especially to protect the elderly from respiratory viruses.
“We could think about the day centers or where our parents, grandparents and elders are and if it should be removed there or not,” he added. In addition, he has commented that, although “most people already forget about the mask in pharmacies, as the Council of the Official College of Pharmacists always remembers, they are health centers, therefore they are governed by the same rule “.
The director of the Health Alerts and Emergencies Coordination Center of the Ministry of Health, Fernando Simón, already announced in April that the mask would “soon” cease to be mandatory in pharmacies, hospitals and nursing homes, but appealed to individual responsibility and asked that people with respiratory infection carry it to avoid contagion.
Asked if the new booster dose of the covid vaccine is going to be with Hipra, Miñones has assured that the vaccination calendar has already been established as of October for those over 80 years of age and also all health workers with the Hipra vaccine. “From there, it will continue in that combination with the rest of the vaccines that we have,” he explained.
He has also highlighted that Spain “stands out precisely for an already very experienced and well-established vaccination system”, so, with the new vaccine, “we must give it continuity and continue to maintain the massive doses”. In addition, he has insisted on “other mechanisms” to prevent the virus, such as hand cleaning.
