The Department of Health has decided to eliminate the mandatory use of masks in health and social care centers, as a result of the improvement in the epidemiological situation in Catalonia. The measure will take effect starting at midnight tonight.
Before the Ministry of Health dictated it for all the autonomous communities, Catalonia decided, three weeks ago, after Kings, to impose the mask at a time of high incidence of respiratory infections, especially due to the epidemic wave of flu, which caused great pressure on primary care and hospital emergencies.
The epidemic wave has been gradually reducing and has accumulated three weeks of decline. Health allows the autonomies to revoke the mandatory nature of the mask, if they wish, as soon as they chain two weeks of decline in epidemiological data.
Salut continues to recommend – without requiring – the use of an approved mask in the following cases: people who present symptoms compatible with a respiratory illness such as the flu or Civid-19 when they are in shared or poorly ventilated spaces or in contact with vulnerable people; in residences and health centers if symptoms of some of these diseases appear.
According to the latest data from the information system for infection surveillance (Sivic), the rate of acute respiratory infections (ARI) has decreased in the last week from 736 to 628 cases/100,000 inhabitants.
“The flu epidemic wave, for its part, has surpassed its peak two weeks ago and the level of transmission remains moderate,” indicates the service. The estimated incidence is 206 cases/100,000 inhabitants. The influenza A situation in the pediatric population, which was the most worrying data last week, has also experienced a significant improvement. At the same time, there is no increase in the incidence of influenza B.
Regarding Covid-19, both the incidence (35 cases/100,000 inhabitants) and the number of hospital admissions it causes continue to decrease. There are currently 385 patients admitted to the ward (155 less than the previous week) and 15 in the ICU (4 less).
The improvement in epidemiological data has an impact on a stabilization of care pressure in hospital emergency services and the complexity and percentage of admissions, according to Salut. From January 22 to 28, 68,898 hospital emergencies were attended to in Catalonia, a daily average of 9,843.
The primary care emergency centers (CUAP) attended to 27,431 emergencies (3,919 daily cases), a figure similar to that of the previous week. In the same period, last year there were 28,441 visits, 3.6% more.
Healthcare activity in primary care accounts for 1,129,294 visits during regular hours, which means a decrease of 3.27% compared to the previous week.
