Junta suggests when Covid masks could be eliminated in Andalusian classrooms

The Health Minister of the Junta de Andalucía, Jesús Aguirre, has said that the next step in terms of eliminating coronavirus face masks will be for children inside schools and has suggested that it could be before Easter when they are ditched.

Speaking to journalists in Antequera, where he was opening a new primary care emergency service (SUAP), Aguirre indicated that the elimination of masks for children in schools is "something that we are evaluating now", after seeing the Spanish Society of Paediatrics report and he suggested that the topic will be addressed at the next meeting of the interterritorial council, between the national Ministry of Health and the regions, to "take a cohesive measure with all the autonomous communities".

Aguirre said that the continued use of mandatory masks in some situations for adults "will depend on the evolution of the pandemic. We do not want to go too fast and we must be prudent", he pointed out, detailing that in terms of the capacity in football and basketball stadiums, it depends on the central government and "we have actively and passively asked for that restriction to be removed”.

Regarding lowering the number of days of Covid-19 quarantine period to five days, the Minister of Health said he believes it be “premature” due to the current number of positive infections and hospital admissions; noting that "it will fall as the figures go down."

Speaking about a fourth dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Aguirre said that it will depend on what the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency say, although he has assured that "right now it is not being considered, although there are studies", just as the vaccine for children from zero to five years of age is being evaluated.

Questioned about how the tests are going on the new Spanish vaccine at Malaga’s Regional Hospital, Aguirre said that according to information passed to the Ministry of Health "the evolution is very good in phase three and it is very positive in terms of increasing antibodies," adding that "we could possibly have the Spanish vaccine in October or November".

Aguirre closed by saying that as long as the World Health Organization "does not say there is a new variant, we can be relatively calm", although he has once again insisted that it is a pandemic and that "the virus lives with us, it will be with us for a long time, continues to cause hospital admissions and continues to kill”. "Let's go slowly," he insisted.