Puig requests court authorization to extend COVID certificate requirement
Primary care is reinforced with the implementation of ten measures, among which is the extension of current contracts, coordination with pharmacies and vaccination in schools.
PHOTO SOURCE: Generalitat Valenciana
Thursday 27th January 2022 – PRESS RELEASE with Mike Smith
The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, has announced that a request has been lodged with the Comunidad Valenciana’s Supreme Court of Justice (TSJVC) to seek authorization to extend until the end of February the requirement to show a COVID certificate to access the interior spaces of hotels and restaurants as well as cinemas, gyms and sports centres.
Puig revealed this decision during a press conference to highlight the agreements adopted at the Interdepartmental Table for Prevention and Action against COVID-19. With regional health minister Ana Barceló alongside him, he said that the requirement to show a COVID certificate has encourage thousands of Valencians to get vaccinated and revealed that 132,000 first doses have been administered to people who were not previously immunized in the past two months since the requirement was put in place, some 2% of the total population.
He added that the priority of the regional government is to intensify booster vaccination as well as that of the children whilst also strengthening primary care to normalize its operation beyond COVID-19.
The president explained the the Comunidad Valenciana has administered more than 2.1 million boosters doses to all age groups above 50 years and that the region is placed above the national average. In addition, vaccination of the under 12s is also 8% higher than the national average.
Puig reiterated the importance of receiving the vaccine to protect health and the hospital system and to live as normal life as possible, explaining that, despite the increase in infections brought about by the Omicron variant, hospitalizations amongst the vaccinated are 2½ times lower that the worst moment of the pandemic and that occupancy in ICU wards is three times lower.
Primary Care Reinforcement
He also outlined the measures which are being implemented in the Primary Care sector, which includes the extension of all current COVID-19 reinforcement contracts, which number about 2,580.
In addition, the regional health ministry has also activated the automatic extension of chronic treatments, the simultaneous processing of discharges, the enabling of an online system to process positive reports from people taking tests in pharmacies, collaboration with pharmacies to facilitate notification of self-tests, notification via SMS of test results, and the vaccination of students in schools.
