M.S.

Updated Tuesday, January 23, 2024-14:13

  • Health When the MIR 2024 notes come out

The rebound in respiratory virus infections detected since the end of 2023 led the Ministry of Health to impose the

mandatory use of masks

to access health centers throughout Spain from January 10.

Just two weeks later, the

Community of Madrid

is already working on the order so that the mask is no longer mandatory.

The Ministry of Health of the Community of Madrid has reported through social networks that "the

incidence of flu

continues to decline, reaching this week

81.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants

."

The data for the previous week was 159 and 177 the previous week.

It is worth remembering that in the measure implemented by the Ministry, its flexibility was highlighted: "The obligation could be lifted, if the Autonomous Community so deems it, if its incidence data

proves two consecutive weeks of decrease in cases

," stressed

Mónica García

, holder of the portfolio, when announcing the obligation.

Regarding how to measure this decline, García pointed out that "when we talk about the decline data, there is no quantitative threshold, it is qualitative. It is observing the decline curve for two weeks."

Now, with the second consecutive week of decreased incidence of flu, the Community of Madrid is already working on the

order so that the use of a mask becomes a recommendation

in health centers and hospitals in the region.

Fátima Matute

, Madrid Health Minister, assures in networks that "this flu epidemic has been even smaller than other years. It has had neither more mortality nor a higher admission rate."

Matute assured that the mandatory nature of the mask was an "

improvised measure that has had no impact on reducing the incidence

" because it was already decreasing before the measure was implemented.

Likewise, he asked the Ministry of Health to make decisions without improvising and without alarming, once it had been demonstrated that "we were not in a health emergency situation" nor did there exist a "public health alert."

It is expected that the use of masks in health centers and hospitals in the Community of Madrid will become a recommendation

as of Wednesday, January 24

.

Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha have also eliminated this obligation.