After 3 years 3 months and 25 days, the health crisis caused by Covid-19 is officially over in Spain. On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the emergency situation due to Covid to be a global pandemic, and today the updated Decree Law ending it has been published in the BOE (Boletin Oficial de Estado).
This finally ends any outstanding restrictions that were activated during the pandemic, including the mandatory use of masks in medical centres, hospitals, and pharmacies, with immediate effect.
Spain, including the Canary Islands, went into lockdown at midnight on Sunday 15th March 2020 after a ‘state of alarm’ was declared, which what we thought would be “a couple of weeks”, but turned out to be much much more.
The updated Decree states: “It was a global health crisis of extraordinary magnitude and severity, both due to the high risk of contagion, the high number of people affected, and the pressure on health services, as well as the extremely high social and economic cost derived from the extraordinary measures of containment and distancing adopted.”
There are also recommendations for the public and places where, in a professional capacity, they must still be worn:
“If the pandemic has revealed anything, it is its great impact in terms of morbidity and mortality in the most vulnerable population. That is why, after the end of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19, prevention and control measures, adapted to the current situation, must continue to be directed, fundamentally, at this population.”
“In this sense, one of the lessons learned from the pandemic is that citizens are responsible and play a fundamental role in reducing the transmission of respiratory infections. It is important to maintain this culture of responsibility that we have acquired in recent years, and to continue using masks and other hygienic measures in the presence of respiratory infection symptoms.”
“Likewise, health centres are areas of special vulnerability in which the pandemic has shown the need to reinforce the use of masks in certain contexts and situations, in particular:
– By symptomatic people when they are in shared spaces.
– For the professionals who care for symptomatic cases.
– By people who work in Intensive Care units and in Units with vulnerable patients following the infection control recommendations advised by the Preventive Medicine and Occupational Risk Prevention Services according to the risk assessment of each health centre.”
VACCINATIONS:
The Minister of Health for Spain, José Miñones, has stressed how important vaccines have been to get the new decree approved and has criticized the fact that there are still "anti-vaxxers" in the institutions. In a press conference yesterday he said: "I believe that our message must be clear: vaccines save lives."
He also announced that a new vaccination campaign against COVID-19 will begin in Spain, including the Canary Islands, in September and October for those over 60 years old and for health professionals, which will include the Spanish Hipra vaccine.
