The Hospital Clinic of Barcelona will recover the use of mandatory masks after the rebound in coronavirus cases, as RAC1 has advanced and EL PERIÓDICO has confirmed.
The mask will be mandatory for patients and companions in the emergency area and for people who visit hospitalized patients until the epidemiological situation returns to normal.
In addition It will also be mandatory for professionals who present symptoms even if they are mild, who are in direct contact with a positive case, who are in contact with vulnerable patients or who are in wards in the context of outbreaks.
For potential covid cases, the hospital will make a diagnosis through an automated antigen test, with reading in the laboratory, and will avoid rapid tests of immediate reading since they have a lower diagnostic yield.
Protocol after the rebound
The decision, taken in coordination with Salut, has been communicated to all professionals toilets this Friday morning with the intention of adopt a more appropriate protocol after the increase in cases and the arrival of new variants BA.2.86, which is being studied to see could be extended as omicron, and eris. Also, many hospitals could follow the same path if the situation stays the same or worsens.
As this newspaper explained this week, the frail elderly, decompensated by the heat and also positive for covid, they are the most affected group that is going to the emergency room this August.
“[Este aumento de contagios en Catalunya] It is multi-causal: it has to do with the new variant, but also with the withdrawal of the alarm, the masks, carelessness and summer concentrations,” explained Joan Caylà, a member of the Spanish Epidemiology Society (SEE) on Thursday.
This measure has also been recently adopted in the Hospital Doctor Peset of Valenciawhere four days ago agreed to the mandatory use of masks in some services such as the ER, Oncology, ICU or Resuscitation due to the rebound in covid cases and the number of workers who have tested positive this month.
New variant, under surveillance
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently advised that the variant BA.2.86 it can spread globally and cause an increase in cases. This was incorporated “in the category of variants under surveillance due to the very high number (more than 30) of Spike gene mutations that it carries”, wrote the organization in its epidemiological bulletin dedicated to covid -19.
The WHO currently is tracking three variants of interest (XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and EG.5) and seven variants are classified under surveillance (BA.2.75, BA.2.86, CH.1.1, XBB, XBB.1.9.1, XBB.1.9.2 and XBB.2.3).