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ARCHIVED - Doctors in Spain propose ending mandatory Covid tests for all patients
Experts believe screening should be reserved for the most vulnerable in Spain
Thanks to the high vaccination rate in Spain and the prevalence of the Omicron variant, now thought to be responsible for 99% of infections in this country, the sixth wave is behaving quite differently to the rest of the pandemic. For this reason, the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) has proposed that hospitals no longer screen every patient in the interest of speeding up procedures and reducing healthcare pressure.
According to the experts, Omicron is causing the most serious illnesses in unvaccinated people, those who have received only one jab and vulnerable patients, making it more practical to focus medical efforts on these groups, rather than testing every patient who passes through a hospital door for Covid.
The report prepared by SEIMC suggests that the virulence of Omicron makes it “very likely that the majority of the population will end up infected” despite constant screening, rendering tests on low-risks groups defunct.
“The reality is that right now we are taking the same measures as when there were no vaccines,” one of the professors explained, adding that just because a hospital patient tests negative on admittance doesn’t mean he won’t be positive the following day, given the current rate of transmission.
Unless patients are tested every day, there seems little point.
In addition to tying up nursing staff and vital medical resources by conducting a PCR test on every patient, the experts argue that the current system is delaying patients’ access to procedures and jeopardising the quality of care they receive.
Also of interest: Experts in Spain debate reducing Covid quarantine further
Given what is now known about the virus, SEIMC has proposed establishing testing procedures and isolation rules based on the fact that 95% of patients stop being transmitters 14 days after the first onset of symptoms. At this point, even if a person tests positive, they pose very little risk, and so should not be subjected to quarantine or have medical procedures delayed, according to the experts.
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