The government’s Health Minister, Olga Pané, recommended on Sunday the wearing of masks on public transport due to the increase in flu cases, which are at a very high level of transmission. In the declarations to Radio CataloniaPané explained that vaccines protect the population from “severe cases,” but that it is advisable to use a mask to protect the most vulnerable population.
Wearing a mask has been compulsory since last Wednesday in all health centers and retirement homes in Catalonia, to which is now added the recommendation to wear it on public transport.
According to the latest data from the Information System for Infection Surveillance in Catalonia (SIVIC), which refers to the week of December 1 to 7, influenza is at a very high level of transmission, with an estimated incidence of 418 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and 24,969 new diagnoses in the last seven days, more than double that of the previous week.
Pané admitted that Catalonia “has limits of power to force people to change their environment”, but it has powers in residential areas, where the mask requirement has been enforced.
Furthermore, the advisor recommended that “general preventive measures” be taken which were applied during the covid pandemic, such as the ventilation of enclosed spaces: “It is not the same, but the preventive measures are the same”.
The high transmission of influenza is explained, Pané explained, by the seven mutations that the virus presents, which means that the immunities acquired so far by the general population “do not protect as well” as before. However, Pané emphasized that the vaccine protects against the most severe cases of flu, which is why he recommended that the entire population be vaccinated.
Currently, the vaccination rate is above 60% in the population over 80, it exceeds 50% among those over 60, and among children it is around 40%. Currently, the people arriving in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) are patients with chronic conditions made worse by the flu.
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