The outbreak of Malaga, with more than 80 positives in Covid-19, is an alarm signal for the long-awaited family meetings at the Christmas holidays.
For experts, it represents a clear notice of what may be to arrive if we do not become aware that normality is not yet among us and that there are measures that should be resumed back at this point of the pandemic, taking into account the speed
to which the number of contagions for SARS-COV-2 grows and the possibility of omicron can be surprising.
What was going to be a simple Christmas meal of health professionals who work in the Intensive Care Unit (UCI) of the Regional University Hospital in Malaga ended up becoming an unexpected focus of coronavirus transmission and also in the mirror in which we could see us
reflected in the coming days.
“It is easy for this type of situations to be reproduced at other sites. Just to join a minimum group of people in an interior, one of them can be asymptomatic and generate an epidemic outbreak,” argues Joan Caylá, a member of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology
(SEE) and President of the Foundation of the Tuberculosis Research Unit of Barcelona.
For this reason and given the current situation in which the figures of contagions are very high, it would be appropriate to avoid this type of dinners and meetings. The ideal is not to take them at term and otherwise, restrict the number of diners, the
Minimum possible, and making the match outdoors or with adequate separation if done in interior spaces “.
Caylá is not the only expert who remembers that we are experiencing complicated moments and that probably after the bridge, “Let’s start seeing the consequences of the trips of the people and the images of agglomerations” making purchases or in the busiest streets of
Some cities like Madrid, or even “manifestations of antivacunas without masks”.
These days could dial one of the starting points towards even more crazy figures.
If not to be aware, at this rate, “Of course we can follow the steps of other European countries,” says Manuel Franco, professor at the University of Alcalá and spokesman for the Spanish Society of Public Health (SESPAS).
We are not ‘immunized’ because our vaccination rate is one of the highest in Europe.
“The vaccine is only a part, it is not the all of the tools we have for the control of the contagion. We have to recover the measures we know that they work.”
That is, “it will not be more choice but to control the slurry, ventilation, the interiors …”.
Not only surprise the agglomerations on the street, “It is creepy that there are 4,000 people in a disco, in concert hall or hundreds of people in a dining room”, which is what has happened in Malaga, with the aggravating that those affected are
All health professionals and generates great repercussion in their jobs at a time when the hands in hospitals are absolutely necessary and essential.
If we look beyond Spain, in France, the nightclubs are going to close a few weeks and are going to limit the celebrations with the aim of overcoming the Christmas holidays without great lamentations.
The experts are concerned about the speed at which the contagions and the incidence are growing, restlessly, this is going to end up shooting the figures after Christmas and to what extent it is going to be translated into hospitalizations and deaths.
Apart, the ‘threat’ of the omicron variant is presented, from which it is not yet known too much and therefore, you can not predict how it will affect the current reality.
“We must be cautious, conscious and respectful,” says Caylá.
Franco bets to “make the decisions and measures that we already know […] it is obvious that we have been tired for almost three years and we are tired, but if we want to recover normality, it will have to be with the necessary measures to continue.”
What would you have to do?
The first thing is to become aware of the current situation.
“We wanted to believe the return to normal. Companies have returned to call their workers, at the university we have the whole world in face-to-face mode, in schools continue to be used the masks and ventilation, but there is no longer a
Ratio of 20 children per class or help teachers “, exposes the public health specialist.
“The road is not only longer, but more difficult and complex than we wanted to think.”
At this point, apart from avoiding the typical meetings of the approaching Christmas holidays, Caylá emphasizes the role of the Covid passport.
“Since you have it in France, number of unvaccinated people have been vaccinated and in Catalonia too. This measure encourages people to immunize and help to remember that the pandemic continues. It can be a useful measure.”
It should be pointed out that, according to official data, in Spain, in the group of people between 20 and 35 years, there are about 25% (in some autonomous communities, reaches 30%) are not protected with the injectable anticovid.
This means, in words of the epidemiologist, that “thousands of people do not have the first dose and are susceptible” to spread and convey.
To what extent would the antigen tests help when meeting with friends and family during these Christmas holidays?
At first glance, it could be the perfect solution, the magic formula to prevent without sacrificing transmission of the celebrations.
According to Franco, “these tests are not infallible. It is a quick test that only detects between those who are having symptoms at that time. There could be false negatives, asymptomatic people who originate an outbreak like that of Málaga.”
Obviously, this test reduces the possibilities, but not to zero.
“They leave slits for which the positive ones can escape and it is not that we find ourselves in a situation in which almost nobody has the virus, is that now, many people have it.”
