MASKS RETURN IN HEALTH CENTRES AFTER RISE IN RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS
Health centres will also be offering vaccination against flu and COVID-19 with an appointment from Monday 8th.
Face masks will need to be worn once again in health centres after a rise of respiratory virus infections across the region. The Regional Ministry of Health has issued instructions to all health departments in the Comunidad Valenciana on the advice of the General Directorate of Public Health.
In the face of a rise in respiratory infections in the region (1,501 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), the instruction explains that Order SND/776/2023 Ministry of Health which declared the end of the mandatory widespread use of face masks in health centres has been modified to specify the situations in which they should be worn once again:
- By people showing symptoms when in shared spaces;
- By professionals caring for those people showing symptoms;
- By people working in ICUs and Vulnerable Patient Units;
- When visiting Accident & Emergency Departments (Urgencias) and health dentres;
- In places where patients and families are concentrated (health centre waiting rooms, hospital consultation waiting rooms, etc.)
The instruction also explains that health departments may establish the mandatory use of a face mask in addition to those situations given above in order to protect the most vulnerable people, supported by their own protocols and the recommendations of the Preventative Medicine Services, depending on the epidemiological situation and the particular structural and functional characteristics of their dependent centres.
Vaccination without Appointment
The Regional Ministry of Health also confirmed that health centres in the Comunidad Valenciana will be administering vaccinations doses against both flu and COVID-19 without the need for appointment from Monday 8th January in response to the resurgence in respiratory infections.
