The Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (swans), in which the autonomous communities and the Ministry of Health are represented, have agreed this Wednesday to create a national vaccine registry that contains information on the different approved vaccines, so that it can be consulted throughout Spain.
As the Secretary of State for Health explained at a press conference after the CISNS, Silvia Calzon, The objective is to create an information system integrated within the scope of the National Health System, which allows the registration, management and evaluation of vaccination programs and the collection of information on the vaccinations that are administered and validated in our country of people residents in Spain.
Calzón has highlighted that it is “a unique and technically affordable short-term opportunity” to create an information system for the vaccinations that are administered and validated in Spain, based on the work already carried out in the registration of vaccinations against COVID-19 (REGVACU).
“This system will improve the quality of regional information systems, will achieve greater cohesion of vaccination information for all citizens, will increase research capacity in Spain and will make it possible to respond to international information needs”has highlighted.
In this way, once it is launched, this system would allow the vaccination history of each citizen to be consulted, Both children and adults. “It can represent a potential improvement for the future, so that when a citizen moves from their autonomous community, all the administered vaccines can be consulted,” Calzón pointed out.
Once an agreement has been reached in the CISNS, a working group will now be established, with the participation of technicians from all the autonomous communities and cities, to “start work as soon as possible” in the adaptation of records and information systems for the confluence of data.
Likewise, Calzón has informed that an analysis of the situation will be carried out in the Autonomous Communities and organizations with competences in vaccination, since there is a “asymmetric development” in Spain. The final objective is to carry out a pilot phase of the registry during 2022 and 2023 for its start-up.
The end of the mandatory mask, “closer”
For her part, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, reiterated this Wednesday that the use of masks outdoors is “temporary” and has ensured that it is every time “closer” to modulate this measure if the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System so agrees.
The minister referred to her speech the day before in Congress after several communities asked to put an end to the mandatory of the mask outdoors.
At this point, Darias has assured that it is a “strictly temporary measure” and that Spain is on “the right path”, with a “downward trend” of the cases, so this measure is “closer” to modulating this measure than was agreed at the Conference of Presidents in the Senate and later ratified by the Council of Ministers.
The approval this Tuesday in Congress of the Government decree that included the mandatory use of the mask outdoors has revived the debate on the need for this rule in the sixth wave of the coronavirus, so that at least four communities — Madrid, Catalonia, Castilla y León and Galicia– have asked to end this obligation, while four other regions– Valencian Community, Cantabria, Andalusia and Basque Country — have claimed this measure against the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is how these regional executives have pronounced on the decree that Congress approved yesterday that included the agreement of the Council of Ministers on December 23 that re-imposed the mandatory use of masks outdoors as a measure to fight against the sixth wave of the coronavirus caused by the ‘ómicron’ variant.
In this context, three autonomies governed by the PP and Catalonia have come out to criticize this measure at this point in the pandemic. In fact, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has asked the Government for the criteria by which it continues to keep the masks outdoors at the moment.