The Minister for Health, Manuela García, confirmed today, Thursday, that the Balearics have entered a flu epidemic phase, with a ratio of 37.3 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, and has therefore recommended that both people with symptoms and healthcare professionals wear masks. She explained this at a press conference in Palma, where she detailed that the peak of the epidemic is expected during the Christmas holidays and stressed the need to get vaccinated.
‘All the measures we learned during COVID are still absolutely valid,’ said García, who also pointed out that the reason why the arrival of the respiratory virus epidemic is four weeks ahead of the usual calendar is unknown, a fact that has not occurred for several years. With regard to the dominant flu strain, the minister explained that AH1N1 is the most widespread in the region and is covered by the vaccines being used to immunise the population.
The national Framework Document of Recommendations for the Control of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) approved on Wednesday establishes a series of measures to be adopted depending on the intensity of the infections, including wearing a mask whenever symptoms are present, as well as in hospitals and nursing homes.
The Public Health Commission has managed to come up with a new plan after the Community of Madrid presented its own document of recommendations which were discussed at the meeting. Now, the final text must be drafted with the agreed amendments, which, according to sources from the organisation, hardly alter the original proposal.
“We have approved a common protocol with all the autonomous communities for dealing with flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory infections. Teleworking and masks in healthcare centres save lives. We said it was necessary and possible. And we have achieved it,” said Health Minister Mónica García on her social media accounts.
Four risk scenarios
The new plan defines four risk scenarios based on various indicators, which are extracted from information provided by different sources: the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System (Sivira), together with information from the daily mortality monitoring system (MoMo), vaccination coverage from the Vaccination Information System (Sivamin) and data on hospital and ICU occupancy.
The four scenarios are: inter-epidemic or baseline situation; low or medium level epidemic; high level epidemic; and very high level epidemic, which will be determined by the levels of transmissibility detected, together with the evaluation of the other indicators and the analysis of the impact on healthcare resources and the susceptible population.
Each scenario involves a series of measures, which must be implemented in a phased and incremental manner, so that the recommendations from the previous levels are also in force at each level. However, there are a series of general recommendations for all of them, including the use of surgical masks when symptoms are present, especially if they are going to have contact with vulnerable people, or the reduction of social interactions in such cases.
Other recommendations include the development and dissemination of vaccination recommendations, the maintenance and strengthening of surveillance systems, the training of healthcare and non-healthcare personnel, and the review of contingency plans in healthcare and social care centres to ensure continuity of care, adequate ventilation of spaces, and respiratory and hand hygiene. These measures should be actively communicated to the public through accessible information materials.