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ARCHIVED - Spain postpones setting date for Covid transition phase
Indoor masks remain a requirement in Spain but their end is “getting closer”
The meeting between Spain’s Minister of Health and the regional leaders on March 10 to discuss the country’s de-escalation plan following the sixth pandemic wave has been somewhat anticlimactic.
Despite a common consensus that the “acute phase” of Covid has ended and the time is nigh for the “transition phase”, we will have to wait until sometime next week before the Public Health Commission sets a firm date for the changes.
What is anticipated is that in the coming weeks, only serious Covid cases such as those that occur among vulnerable populations or outbreaks in care homes will be actively controlled and that mandatory quarantine for those with mild or no coronavirus symptoms will be eliminated.
The majority of the autonomous communities are pushing for the change, arguing that it no longer makes sense for regional governments to continue providing daily data on infections. This point is amplified by the disparity with which some communities and others count the positives – for example, there are some that include self-diagnosis tests and others that do not – which makes the incidence data somewhat redundant.
The ever-present issue of indoor mask-wearing was predictably raised in the Zaragoza meeting, and without setting a date for its removal, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, said that this time “is getting closer” thanks to the downward evolution of the pandemic across Spain.
The autonomous communities have been divided over masks: thus far, Madrid is the only region to openly ask for its withdrawal, although Andalucía has recently voiced its support for the gradual removal of the restriction. In contrast, the Basque Country and Extremadura have unequivocally refused to end mask-wearing without national consensus.
In the longer term, most likely from next year, the Ministry has committed to a sentinel system for monitoring coronavirus which will collect data from primary care centres and hospitals, so that any increase in infections or changes in the behaviour of the virus can be picked up on immediately.
Until then, the ‘Zaragoza declaration’ agreed on Thursday that “during the transition phase” to the new sentinel system, another structure will be established which will focus on “individualised surveillance in vulnerable settings and serious cases” and “epidemic outbreaks in vulnerable settings”.
Image: Carolina Darias
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