Spain wants to monitor the Corona virus like the flu • From today, fewer trains in the evening

Spain is at an advanced stage in the development of a new surveillance system for the coronavirus, in which the disease will not be seen as a pandemic, but rather as an endemic. From now on, Spain will treat the virus like a regular flu.

In practice, the new plan means, among other things, that not every infection must be recorded and that people with symptoms do not necessarily have to be tested. They are treated if they become seriously ill. General practitioners or, for example, health centers in schools and hospitals are required to report the development of the coronavirus via the survey system.

Prime Minister Sanchez confirmed the plan in an interview With a Spanish radio station. There is no specific date for the transition to the new system, but according to the newspaper Country Spain wants to present it after the current sixth wave.

This step can be taken, according to Sanchez, because the number of deaths as a percentage of the number of infections has fallen sharply since the beginning of the epidemic. The prime minister also called for debate in Europe to follow the virus differently.

turn around

Reporter Rob Zutberg said the Spanish government has been working on the plan since the beginning of the pandemic. “Because in the beginning it was also said that it was a type of influenza that we are dealing with.”

“There is also a different feeling: Compliance with the Corona measures has become increasingly difficult, and many Spaniards have been in contact with the virus. And 92 percent of them have also been pricked. As a result, you now see a lot of infections by omikron in an instant, but only relatively.” Few people get so sick that they have to go to hospital. I think that gives the shift and thinking now an extra boost.”