Four of Spain's 17 autonomous administrations have introduced mandatory masks in hospitals and all other health centers.
Valencia and Murcia made it compulsory to wear masks in hospitals and all other health centers as of today, while in the autonomous region of Aragon, this practice is only valid for health personnel for now.
Health Minister Monica Garcia held a meeting with all autonomous governments in order to extend the obligation to wear masks in health centers across the country, but some autonomous governments, such as Madrid, Galicia, Castilla and León, opposed it.
These autonomous governments, where right-wing opposition parties are in power, argued that "citizens have enough awareness to protect themselves" and wanted the use of masks to be "a recommendation, not an obligation".
Minister Garcia, who has asked the governments of the autonomous administrations to present their solutions to this problem, is expected to organize a new meeting within the week.
On the other hand, speaking to the Spanish radio Onda Cero, Minister Garcia announced that in order to prevent overcrowding in hospitals, he suggested that in mild cases of flu, employees should be given 3 days of home rest without a doctor's report, and that work has been initiated with the Social Security Institution for this.
The Spanish Minister said that the current situation regarding the flu epidemic is "alarming and measures must be taken".
The obligation to wear masks indoors, which started during the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain, was gradually abolished and finally, with the decision taken by the Council of Ministers on July 3, 2023, this practice in hospitals was terminated.
According to data released by the Ministry of Health, the number of people hospitalized due to influenza in the country has increased by nearly 60 percent in the last 1 week.
The highest concentration of respiratory infections in hospitals is seen in Castilla-La Mancha (an average of 1709 cases per 100,000 people), Valencia, Asturias, the Canary Islands and the autonomous governments of Castilla and León.
