Epidemiologist, researcher in the Health Services and Pharmacoepidemiology Research Area of the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (FISABIO) and Director of Gaceta Sanitaria, the scientific journal of the Spanish Society of Public Health and Health Administration (SESPAS)
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Health Regulations Committee on Emergencies has decided to maintain the covid-19 pandemic as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) after meeting last Friday.
In the last few days, several media have published that the end of the obligatory use of face masks in public transport is near. According to today's Vozpópuli, the Alerts Committee is expected to approve the change from compulsory to recommended use next week.
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, announced today at a press conference that in view of the increase in cases of covid-19 in China following the end of the covid zero policy, Spanish airports are going to require passengers arriving from that country to take a negative test for covid-19 or a complete vaccination schedule. The first flight affected by health control measures will arrive at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport at 18:00 on 31 December.
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, responded yesterday in the government control session in Congress to a parliamentary question that face masks will continue to be obligatory on public transport. According to Darias, the Alerts Committee justifies the measure "due to the high concentration of people in very small spaces, without adequate ventilation and on long journeys".
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, today announced that face masks will no longer be compulsory indoors after Easter. The measure will come into force on 20 April. It will continue to be compulsory in public transport, health centres and residences, but the final details of the new scenario are not yet known.
The Public Health Commission has updated the Covid-19 Surveillance and Control Strategy, which will come into force on Monday 28 March. From then on, as long as indicators of healthcare utilisation are at low risk, diagnostic testing will focus on vulnerable individuals and settings and severe cases. Surveillance will focus on these groups.
In recent days, several countries have modified the quarantine times for close contacts and the isolation of infected people, while others are already considering it. Spain has announced that it will reduce these periods to 7 days, both for people who have tested positive in a test and for close contacts who require quarantine (in the case of our country, unvaccinated people).
The misleading presentation of hospitalization data, ICU admissions or deaths in vaccinated and unvaccinated persons that we are seeing these days in some media and social networks are generating confusion about the effectiveness of these preparations.
A clinical trial in Brazil evaluated the effectiveness of a depression drug versus placebo in reducing the risk of hospitalisation for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Administration of 100 mg twice daily for ten days to high-risk outpatients with early diagnosis reduces the need for hospitalisation.