Masks Once Again Mandatory in Health Centres and Hospitals

The Ministry of Health has sent to the health departments of the Valencian Community an instruction from the General Directorate of Public Health that establishes the mandatory use of masks in health and social health centres as a preventive measure in the face of the resurgence of respiratory virus infections.

The instruction indicates that Order SND/776/2023 of the Ministry of Health declared the end of the mandatory widespread use of masks in health centres and specifies the situations in which their use should be reinforced. In this sense, given the incidence of respiratory infections in the Valencian Community (rate 1,501 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in epidemiological week 52), it is considered pertinent to establish the mandatory use of masks in health and social health centres in the following situations:

– Symptomatic people when in shared spaces

– Professionals who care for symptomatic cases

– People who work in Intensive Care Units and Units with Vulnerable Patients

– In hospital or primary care emergencies

– In places where patients and families are concentrated (primary care waiting rooms, hospital consultations,…).

Likewise, the instruction adds that in the rest of the situations that are generally intended for the protection of people considered vulnerable, the management of the health departments, supported by their own protocols and the recommendations of the Preventive Medicine Services , may establish the mandatory use of a mask in addition to the established indications, depending on the epidemiological situation and the particular structural and functional characteristics of their dependent centres.

Vaccine without an appointment

On the other hand, the Department of Health recalls that, as Minister Marciano Gómez announced this Thursday, health centres will administer doses of flu and COVID-19 vaccines starting next Monday, January 8, without the need for by appointment, with the purpose of promoting the immunisation of the population in the face of the rebound in respiratory infections.