It is confirmed that the peak incidence of respiratory viruses was reached in the last week of 2023 and that the decrease in flu activity in Spain is consolidated, according to data from Sentinel Surveillance of Acute Respiratory Infection in Primary Care and in hospitals: Flu, covid VRS, from the Carlos III Health Institute. With these data, the Government Council of Castilla y León has agreed to eliminate the obligation to wear a mask in health centers, considering that the requirements of the Ministry of Health that the incidence of respiratory infections should drop for two weeks are met. However, the data provided by Carlos III refutes this: they fell in the second week of January, but in the first week of the year, they rose compared to December.
It is not the only community that would meet these requirements, since there are many regions that have confirmed the reduction in the incidence of these viruses, as is the case of Castilla-La Mancha, Asturias, Cantabria, Valencia, Galicia and Madrid, which have two weeks off. Catalonia, for the first time, descends.
The same is not the case, with Andalusia, Aragon, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Murcia, Extremadura, Navarra and the Basque Country, which are rising again with some force.
In the week of January 8 to 14, the global rate stands at 926.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (923.5 cases/100,000 h. in the previous week). By age groups, the highest rates of respiratory infections in Primary Care occur in the group of children under 1 year of age (3,951.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), followed by the group of 1-4 years of age (1,819.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants). h). By sex, incidence rates are higher in women than in men (1,050.9 vs 797.1 cases per 100,000 h).
According to this report, the simultaneous circulation of influenza, SARSCoV-2 and RSV continues, with greater intensity for influenza, but with a decreasing positivity that is associated with a decrease in influenza rates in all areas of health care. .
In the second week of the year, the decline in flu activity in Spain is consolidated, with a peak incidence in Primary Care in the last week of 2023 and a peak in hospitalization due to flu in the first week of 2024. Hospitalization due to covid decreases, especially in patients aged 80 or over, while the rate of RSV infection decreases in children under 1 year of age and maintains its rise in patients aged 80 or over.
In Andalusia, the community with the least incidence, the Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Catalina García, has asked the population “not to trust” despite the fact that the incidence rate of flu and Covid-19 in Andalusia has decreased in the last weeks, because the respiratory viruses “are not going to retire until the month of March when they will begin to decrease”, so “the most important thing is that Andalusians get vaccinated.”
This is how the counselor spoke to a question from the media in Bormujos (Seville) about whether she is considering withdrawing the mandatory use of masks and leaving it as a recommendation, taking into account that Andalusia is the community that has the lowest rate of flu and covid, which has also been decreasing in recent weeks.
In this way, García has asked the population “not to trust” because the respiratory viruses “are going to accompany us in January, February and the beginning of March”, while recalling that last year in the middle of February “we had a high peak that made us all put on alert again”, so here “the most important thing is that Andalusians get vaccinated.”
