Four risk scenarios and thirty measures and recommendations. It is the strategy of Ministry of Health to contain the peaks of respiratory virus infectionsnow that a season of greater transmission is arriving and to try situations like those of last winter, when hospitals and health centers ended up saturated by cases of flu and covid. The minister Monica Garcia will present this Thursday to the autonomous communities a draft that, in a certain part, recovers the ‘traffic light mechanism’ that was used in the pandemic to promote measures such as the use of masks in hospitals, supermarkets or public transport, according to the epidemiological situation of each territory.
The document, to which you have had access 20 minutesmarks the epidemiological severity of a territory based on a series of indicators—such as incidence and hospitalization rate, risk of transmission, ICU admissions or fatality— and, based on them, the measures are being tightened. The objective, according to the draft that will have to be ratified later in the Interterritorial Council, is to “guarantee coordination” between communities, regardless of whether each autonomous government can then implement “as many complementary measures as it considers appropriate.”
In this way, Health establishes four risk scenarios that will be evaluated weekly: scenario 0, “inter-epidemic or baseline” situation, which will occur when the transmissibility indicators of acute respiratory infections are medium or low; scenario 1, “low or moderate” level; scenario 2 or “high level”; and scenario 3, “very high” or “pandemic” level.
Leave and teleworking
In it scenario 1, The Ministry of Health recommends people with symptoms or infected with flu or covid to minimize their social interactions and use a surgical mask for at least five days, especially if they are going to be in contact with vulnerable people. He also advises that teleworkif their job allows it, and, if not, to avoid direct contact with vulnerable people in the workplace.
For infected employees who work in centers with vulnerable populations, such as nursing homes, the Government suggests temporarily relocating them to an area where they are not directly with patients and, if this is not possible, discharge them during the first five days after the onset of symptoms and use the mask when you return. In hospitals and health centers, the use of a mask will be recommended to all people in the most vulnerable areas, such as chemotherapy rooms or transplant units.
Masks in supermarkets and theaters
The implementation of the measures will be staggered, so at level 1 It will already be necessary to guarantee that the recommendations of the previous scenario are met and add the new ones, which in this scenario contemplate the recommendation of the masks for workers who work in front of the public (as long as interactions with people with compatible symptoms or confirmed cases) and the promotion of prevention measures to avoid crowding of employees in closed spaces.
People at risk, such as the elderly or patients with underlying illnesses, will be “actively” recommended to wear masks in all social interactions outside the home environment where they cannot maintain a safe distance, such as supermarkets, public transportation, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, concert halls, gyms, dance halls or large outdoor events. The use of masks “permanently” will also be recommended for workers in residential centers, where they can be restrict courtesy visits, “always assessing the emotional impact that this may have on the most vulnerable people and minimizing the restriction in these cases.”
In hospitals and health centers, the use of the mask will be indicated to everyone and the obligation will be assessed in those centers that, “according to their specific situation and vulnerability”, are determined as such. In this scenario, the usefulness of developing continuity plans to stop guarantee health care in times of outbreaks of infections among health workers, as well as increasing, if necessary, the capacities of the emergency services and ICU.
When the transmission of acute respiratory diseases is considered very high, Coordination between autonomous communities will be reinforced and the adoption of “additional and exceptional measures” may be assessed.
