The Catalan health authorities have announced that from next Monday, mass screenings for Covid using antigen tests will come to an end for most school students. The health department has announced that they will only be maintained in infant education and among teachers. This was specified by the public health secretary, Carmen Cabezas, during today's press conference on the situation of the pandemic in Catalonia. The decision was made because, she said, the situation in classrooms is now more controlled. "We have seen that we have decreases in positivity and incidence. We now have a more controlled situation and that is why we plan to end the screening program on Monday, February 7th" he said.
And as Cabezas explained by means of graphs, while the incidence of Covid in student age groups continues to be high, there has been a fall in incidence. In fact, she noted that if the difference between the incidence over 14 days and that over 7 days is less than 50%, it indicates that the contagion data is declining. As you can see in the graph, it is 41%.
In this regard, CatSalut proposes to change the rules on quarantines for school students. Cabezas said the department will take the proposal to Spain's Interterritorial Council for agreement. "We think it's time to rethink this measure," he said. "We propose that it be studied and evaluated." The secretary recalled the change in the education protocol just the weekend before classes began. "We think the situation needs to be rethought."
"86% percent of the Catalan population has either had contact with the virus or been vaccinated, and thus has a level of immunity. In this context, we want a flexibilization of state-imposed measures in general, and not just the quarantines," she said.
Omicron reinfections
After two weeks in which Covid-motivated visits to primary attention centres totalled more than 100,000, the first line of the public health service is also noting a decline in these visits. There were 42,115 visits on Tuesday and 61,557 on Monday to CAP centres in Catalonia. Regarding cases of reinfection, the department has found that 7.73% of cases recorded are reinfections. Breaking that down, in those under 50 years of age, 8.16% of cases are among people who had already had Covid, while in those over 50 years of age, the percentage is 6.78%.
As for the data on the chances of ending up in hospital or in the ICU if you have not been vaccinated, CatSalut has also updated its data. Unvaccinated people over the age of 50 are 3.6 times more likely to be hospitalized for Covid and 8.7 times more likely to be admitted to an ICU. In those over 70, the odds are higher still: 5.4 time more probable to be admitted to hospital and 11.3 times to enter the ICU.
Cabezas told the press conference that the total percentage of Catalans who have have now had their first two shots of vaccine is 77.7%, and 47.5% of the population aged 12 and over has had a booster. Late last week, the department announced that the 18-29 year-olds who received their second vaccine dose five or more months ago could now request an appointment for the booster dose.
Main image: A pharmacist performs a Covid antigen test on a child / ACN