Health department calls on lawmakers to meet on January 8 due to influenza epidemic

Madrid, January 4 (EFE) – Health Minister Mónica García on Thursday summoned the health ministers of the autonomous regions to a meeting on January 8 to implement public health measures related to influenza.

In a statement to Onda Cero, the Minister of Health of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Fátima Matute, explained that this call was received by all health ministers at 7:30 pm this Thursday.

“I should have foreseen this earlier, as many autonomous communities have done, especially Madrid, which have winter plans since November this year and which we have been working on since, you told me, January 8 “When we are at the peak of the epidemic, various ministries will coordinate what measures to take,” Matute said.

He stressed that the health minister had been “absent” since December 21 last year and that the interdepartmental meeting came “late” while flu rates in Spain had been rising last week.

Counselors ask citizens “not to worry, because we counselors are already at work” because “flu and health do not understand the holidays, we have been where we have to go, working with professionals, coordinating this plan against influenza to To try to mitigate the increase in hospital visits (as has been done in Madrid) and avoid having to suspend scheduled admissions or scheduled surgeries (as we have achieved so far).

Matute said that the incidence of influenza and other respiratory viruses in the Madrid Autonomous Community is similar to other years before the new coronavirus pandemic. He explained that the incidence of influenza has been increasing in the past four weeks and is expected to increase after Three Kings Day. These respiratory infections peak after family gatherings this holiday season.

“We are taking care of ourselves, but we don’t have to worry and we are not in a state of panic,” he stressed.

As of now, the Madrid community has 230 cases of influenza per 100,000 inhabitants, a figure similar to pre-pandemic figures.

The Madrid region has a care coordination group at all levels, “everything is controlled minute by minute” to take the necessary measures and facilitate the work of professionals and the care of the people of Madrid.

Matute detailed that the group most affected by the flu and requiring more hospitalizations were the over-80s, with no increase in hospital admissions in other age groups, before emphasizing that neither COVID-19 nor coronavirus-related income had increased.Effie

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