UPDATE: Three Valencian Community Hospitals Introduce Mandatory Use Of Face Masks To Combat Covid

UPDATE: Monday, August 21 at 8:40 pm

A third hospital in the Valencian Community has brought back the use of face masks in some of its facilities.

As reported this Monday 21 by lasprovincias.com, Hospital de Sagunto in the city of Valencia has joined the General Hospital and Doctor Peset University Hospital – both in the same city – in implementing this measure in the face of a reported increase in cases of coronavirus.

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Sunday, August 20 at 7:08 pm

A second hospital in the Valencian Community has brought back the mandatory wearing of face masks.

Visitors to the General Hospital of Valencia must now comply with this measure which was imposed last Friday, August 18. The action was confirmed this morning, Sunday 20, to levante-emv.com by Neus Valls, the head of the facility’s emergency service. A circular was reportedly sent to all the relevant departments to inform them of the new move.

Last Tuesday 15, Valencia’s Doctor Peset University Hospital was the first such facility to re-introduce this measure as the result of a reported increase in Covid-19 cases.

Masks will only be compulsory in certain units of the hospital. These include the emergency services, the hospitalisation area, the ICU, and the adjoining waiting rooms.

These are areas of the hospital considered to be the ‘most sensitive’ for new infections. The medical facility also recommended the use of masks in the area of ​​external consultations although, for the moment, the obligation has not been imposed in these spaces.

The measure comes one month after the pandemic was declared over

Both hospitals have reinstated the use of masks barely one month after their use was officially eliminated on July 5, following a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

It declared the end of the pandemic in Spain, although 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.

According to Valls, the measure affects patients who visit these hospital services, although: ‘it is being carried out normally’, he explained.

Despite the fact that the use of masks ceased to be compulsory on July 5, the head of A&E acknowledged that: ‘there are still many patients who prefer to continue using it’.

The measure is temporary depending on the evolution of Covid cases

The centre’s decision is temporary, although no specific term has been stipulated, so it will remain in force until the management considers it appropriate according to the evolution of the data on new infections he detailed.

Sources from the Ministry of Health reported last Tuesday that the measure was not going to be widely adopted in Valencian hospitals. However, it pointed out that it will be necessary to be attentive to the evolution of infections and the assessment that the Ministry makes in this regard.

Even though the coronavirus health crisis was decreed to be over, the law allowed for the possibility of requesting its use again in vulnerable areas when required by individual health centres.