Masks Reintroduced In Valencian Community Hospital As Covid Cases Increase

DUE to a reported increase in cases of Covid, the Doctor Peset University Hospital in Valencia has reintroduced the use of facemasks in certain units.

The action was confirmed to lasprovincias.es this Monday, August 14, by sources from the Ministry of Health. It indicated that the measure is being implemented for an indefinite period of time.

Barely one month after the mandatory use of masks was eliminated in health facilities, the hospital has introduced this protective measure in its Emergencies, Resuscitation, and Oncology sections, as well as in the ICU.

The pandemic was declared over in Spain on July 4

On July 4, following a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the end of the pandemic in Spain was declared. However, the official decree allowed for the possible need to reintroduce certain measures at some point in the future.

As confirmed to the news outlet by the Department of Health sources, this would be left to the discretion of each individual health facility.

A risk assessment could be carried out by each facility in accordance with the infection control recommendations advised by the Preventive Medicine and Occupational Risk Prevention Services.

Although the end of mandatory mask usage in hospital centres was decreed, it did recommend reinforcing the use of protection for symptomatic people when they are in shared spaces the same sources pointed out.

It also referred to the professionals attending to symptomatic cases and to those people who worked in intensive care units and in units with vulnerable patients, as well as in hospital emergencies they added.

There has been an increase in the number of Covid cases

In recent weeks, there has been an increase in Covid cases in the Valencian Community. Specifically, infections doubled in the last weeks of July to reach the levels of last February.

The last dose of the vaccine adapted to the new variants was barely administered to half of the Valencians between 60 and 69 years of age reported the newspaper. Also, they added that little more than 70 per cent of those over 70 years of age took part in last February’s campaign.

The latest increase is not having a significant effect in health facilities

Added to all these factors is the increase in mobility throughout the country in the summer and large gatherings with family and friends during the holidays. Although, as the outlet stressed, for the moment, this latest rise in cases is not having a significant incidence in health centres.

This new rise brings an end to the downward trend in cases that started around the beginning of June 2022. Pharmacies have reported an upturn in the sales of Covid tests since the end of July according to the paper.

We would be interested to hear from readers with their thoughts on this latest turn of events. Please feel free to leave a comment.