In what cases can the use of masks in hospitals continue to be mandatory?
The Ministry of Health and the communities have agreed to end the mandatory use of masks in sanitary spaces. Public transport was the last closed place where the restriction imposed during the pandemic was lifted. Hospitals, health centers and pharmacies were the only areas where it was necessary to put on the mask to enter.
The lifting of this restriction was a measure that some autonomous communities had been asking for for a long time. As announced by the Minister of Health, José Miñones, after the meeting with the councilors at the Interterritorial Health Council, it will no longer be mandatory to wear masks in these places. “The experts transfer the end of the health crisis and replace the norm that until now forced the use of the mask in certain spaces to move on to the recommended use and good practices”, explained Miñones.
What can be the exceptions?
But there will be cases in which the use of masks may continue to be mandatory.. According to Efe, the agreement contemplates maintaining them in some situations that involve vulnerable patients, such as operating rooms, intensive care units and in which there are immunocompromised patients.. Emergency areas could also be included.
The exceptions for its use or the date have not yet been detailed, since the proposal must be transferred to the Council of Ministers to establish the new standard. In this way, its use will continue to be recommended when there are symptoms of respiratory infection..
🔴 @jose_minones ▶️ The experts move the end of the #COVID19 health crisis and replace the norm that required the use of the #mask in certain spaces to move to a recommended use and good practices
🔊 It will be applied in all spaces and throughout the territory pic.twitter.com/iFp7oe2LP9
– Ministry of Health (@sanidadgob) June 23, 2023
Thus, more than a thousand days have passed since the restriction that remained in force for sanitary spaces. The decision has been made after studying the “expert reports on the epidemiological situation and vaccination against Covid 19” and after a month after the WHO declared the end of the global public health emergency due to the coronavirus.