Wearing masks is to be obligatory again in Spain’s hospitals and other healthcare facilities from today, the Spanish Ministry of Health said on Monday as the nation faces an influenza outbreak.
The decree was announced after a meeting between the ministry and representatives of the nation’s regions, who control their own health systems.
Spain, which was hit hard by the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020, has been considering the move for several days, but a final decision was held up by disagreements among its regions.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Since the pandemic, we have learnt,” Spanish Minister of Health Monica Garcia said after the meeting. “We have thought hard about the issue of the mask to protect above all health centers and hospitals, to protect patients as much as [healthcare] professionals.”
The wearing of masks is “a measure that is effective, common sense, that is backed by scientific evidence and that is welcomed by the general population,” she added.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has recommended that people on the continent stay at home if they feel sick, and consider wearing masks in crowds or healthcare settings, with flu spreading as it typically does this time of year, but hitting some nations harder than others.
It said Europeans should follow national guidelines on vaccinating vulnerable groups.
Flu is now circulating at higher levels than other common respiratory pathogens, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, it said.
Spain was among the last European nations to drop requirements to wear masks following the COVID-19 pandemic, with people told to wear them on public transport until February last year, and in health centers and pharmacies until July.
In Italy, people suffering from flu-like illnesses, which include both flu and COVID-19, reached a record high in the final two weeks of last year, data issued by the issued by National Health Institute (ISS) showed.
The incidence in Italy was 17.5 cases per 1,000 people in the 52nd week and 17.7 cases per 1,000 people the previous week.
ISS experts said the rise could be blamed on people no longer wearing masks and fewer people seeking vaccinations so far this season. So far there has been no sign that the Italian government is considering reintroducing mask mandates.
Portuguese Minister of Health Manuel Pizarro on Monday said there is no reason for a generalized recommendation regarding mask use, while acknowledging that the nation was experiencing a flu epidemic that had increased waiting times in hospital emergency wards to more than 10 hours.
In intensive care units, the proportion of influenza cases reached a record 17 percent in the last week of last year, the Portuguese Ministry of Health said.
Nations in other parts of the world are also adopting mask usage once more. Hospitals in at least four US states have reinstated mask mandates amid a rise in cases of COVID-19, seasonal flu and other respiratory illnesses.
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