(13-01-2022, 02:05 PM)windermeregolfer Wrote: I get the Cumbria Business News each morning and this morning there was an article headlined -
"Spain pushes EU to downgrade Covid to ‘flu-like’ status as fatality rate drop"
Cumbria New Item
Afternoon John.
In my humble opinion this is inevitable sooner than later, we are now seeing people catching it despite being triple jabbed, I alone know of 8 people like this, and the World cannot go an as it is, it is totally unsustainable, again IMHO we should switch the emphasis on getting as many people in the World vaccinated, and live with it, we have to have some form of normality.
Can I emphasise I do not want to start a heated debate it is as always merely my personal opinion
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John I agree with you we have to move on however those that test positive or are not well should take responsibility to stay home for a while so as to protect others, just be responsible citizens.
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Radio Sintonia:
An automated process of discharges for COVID-19 is activated in the Canary Islands for patients of low clinical complexity.
An automated process of discharges for COVID-19 is activated in the Canary Islands for patients of low clinical complexity. Patients will be informed of the situation of discharge, through an SMS to the telephone registered in The Health Card on the day of its issuance, which avoids having to go to the health center's medical consultation to receive discharge.
The Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo, the director of the Canary Islands Health Service, Conrado Domínguez, and the general director of Assistance Programs, Elizabeth Hernández, presented this morning at a press conference the new automation system of discharges issued by disease caused by COVID-19 and close contact, exceptionally and temporarily, in response to the pandemic situation of high incidence of COVID-19.
Blas Trujillo explained that we are in a context of high care pressure throughout Spain and that the Canary Islands have both Primary and Hospital Care with contingency plans activated to respond to demand. However, he added that the Omicron variant, present for a month in the islands, has changed the profile of care so that the disease is being much more transmissible but also milder, in general. This, he said, has motivated in the first place that the Strategy for the Detection and Monitoring of COVID cases had to be changed, as agreed in the Public Health Commission of the Ministry of Health and at the same time it has been necessary to adapt the assistance to the demand of the population, putting in place measures that solve the needs of the population and the professionals who are the great value of the system.
Trujillo stressed that the Government of the Canary Islands has prioritized health policy in its budgets over even economic growth, aware of the needs caused by the pandemic and assured that if this were not the case, there would be no possibility of having existing resources, contingency plans adaptable to the circumstances and the hiring of 7,000 reinforcement professionals during the pandemic, of which almost 2,000 have been incorporated during this sixth wave. "This has allowed us to go from a workforce of 32,000 professionals when the pandemic began to the current 39,000," he said.
In this sense, he recalled that "the Canary Islands have been one of the few Autonomous Communities that kept their reinforcement staff and that contemplated it in the budgets to give continuity in anticipation of what could happen while still in pandemic". He also added that "the appearance of Omicron has put the system to the test, with an increase in the demand for care that requires taking different measures, such as the automation of temporary disability processes, which is one of the most complex to articulate but which has had the predisposition of professionals to create a specific work group and generate the necessary computer changes."
Automation of temporary disability
The director of the SCS, Conrado Domínguez added that the automation of the processing of temporary disabilities aims to expedite the processing of the patient who is avoided from making the consultation to process the discharge and medical discharge and decongests the activity of Primary Care with an overload currently due to the high number of cases registered in the last month. Through this procedure, an average of 2,000 medical consultations a day in Primary Care will be avoided only to process the discharge of people with mild COVID and the same amount therefore for discharge to perform an administrative activity, which requires the signature of a doctor, which from now on will be that of a specific team for such activity. An example of the usefulness of the measure is reflected in the fact that yesterday 3,385 casualties were processed, of which 2,286 could have been made automatically by the support team, that is, 60 percent of those people who needed leave could benefit from this new system.
Centralized Support Group for Casualty Management
With the aim of speeding up the process of processing temporary disability and relieving the care burden of Primary Care doctors, a support group has been created consisting of 45 doctors who will centrally manage the casualties of mild or asymptomatic cases that do not require clinical follow-up and that the only thing they contact the health system for is for this procedure. This team is made up of specialists in Occupational Health, Medical Inspection and Health Administration.
How it works
The COVID patient who needs to process the cancellation must contact the line 900 112 061, where the doctor, depending on the state of health, age and the existence or not of previous pathologies, sends the request for withdrawal to the centralized team or the patient's doctor. In either case the patient will receive a call from a doctor who will do the procedure without having to travel.
In the event that the COVID patient has mild symptoms, is young and meets the criteria of the automated system, that request is referred to the doctors of the centralized team. In this way, the doctor of the centralized team contacts the patient, verifies that his condition is mild and generates the cancellation part that instantly communicates online to the INSS. In addition, it automatically activates the discharge at seven days, as long as it does not present complications. If your evolution is favorable, you will receive an SMS with the registration part to the mobile phone number registered on your health card, without requiring a new confirmatory diagnostic test.
Patients who throughout this period present symptoms that are not mild or have not improved should call the line 900 112 061, and the process of automated discharge management will be interrupted to be cited by their family doctor.
Patient profile: under 45 years of age and with low clinical complexity
The automated issuance of the temporary disability process with extraordinary character aims to respond to the resolution of processes of low clinical complexity due to COVID-19. Hence, it is established that the ideal age for this type of procedure is in children under 45 years of age, which is usually a sector of the population without previous pathologies and that is suffering from COVID-19 asymptomatically or mildly.
This process is adapted to the latest recommendations issued by the Ministry of Health regarding the isolation period, established in seven days if from the fourth there is no appearance of symptoms, and will be applicable to those patients with these profiles:
-People aged 45 years or younger, with a positive test (PCR or PDAG) asymptomatic, vaccinated and without risk factors who cannot telework.
-People aged 45 years or younger, with a positive test, with mild symptoms (fever, dry cough, asthenia, myalgia, odynophagia, headache, rhinorrhea, anosmia, ageusia), vaccinated and without risk factors.
-Patients close contacts, without full vaccination and who have not passed COVID-19 in the last 180 days, who require quarantine.
-Close immunocompromised contact patients.
Risk factors are considered: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, ischemic heart disease, nephropathy, COPD, immunosuppression due to intrinsic or extrinsic cause, obesity, active oncological process, pregnant women, other chronic diseases to be assessed by the clinician.
Prolongation of the leave
In case the patient requires an extension of the isolation time, the program will allow the cancellation of the discharge and the discharge will remain open until the resolution of the clinical situation. With this process the patient will not have to be cited in the agenda for the issuance of the clinical discharge.
When you will require medical evaluation for discharge
Patients with greater symptoms should be evaluated at discharge, confirming the absence of symptoms to close the process.
This measure will also be available, on an exceptional basis, to medical professionals of the normal emergency services, continuous care and incidence for its issuance if they assess it.
Other measures to relieve care pressure
The general director of Assistance Programs, Elizabeth Hernández, explained that the health system is registering a pressure as high as that in almost a month and a half there have been 2,211,350 consultations in Primary Care, one million more consultations than on the same date of the previous year. He recalled that in order to improve the activity of Primary Care consultations, important steps have been taken with concrete measures, such as:
– Implementation of the modification of the National Strategy for the Detection and Monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 that limits the tracking and follow-up of cases, prioritizing the vulnerable population, given the high transmission of the Coronavirus existing at this time.
–Prioritization of the telephone consultation of family doctor, pediatrics and nursing, leaving the face-to-face consultation at the discretion of the specialist.
–Extension of treatment plans for three months so that patients withdraw them directly at the pharmacy without having to go to the doctor's office.
– Authorization to the Pharmacy offices so that they can issue the COVID certificates, which has already issued 6,500 in the first three days of operation to those people who had difficulty accessing the app and web miCertificadocovid.com and went to the Primary Care centers to provide them with this document.
– Communication to the patient by SMS of the result of the diagnostic test of active infection with link to a guide with the indications of care to follow, simple and easy to understand, whether the result is positive or negative. Each case is sent depending on the result and the positive ones, it also includes what you should do to communicate with your possible close contacts and provide them with the rules to follow, which resolves the patient's doubts and avoids direct medical attention in those cases that present the disease in a mild way.
– The PCR points were reinforced,both in the massive points with more personnel and another twenty points in health centers in Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
– Reinforcement of personnel:The Canary Islands have been one of the few Autonomous Communities that did not dispense with their reinforcement staff at the end of 2021 before the sixth wave began, which has allowed it to face it in a better way. Even so, more than 2,000 professionals of different categories have been hired since the end of November for tracking, follow-up and administrative and assistance activity. It has gone from 32,000 professionals in the SCS to 39,000.
– Vaccination teams have been maintained every day in extensive coverage hours in multiple locations simultaneously, including vacuguagua and the reinforcement offered by the Ministry of Defense for support in vaccination was requested, with 18 troops.
– Emergency services and points of continuous care on weekends and holidays have been reinforced.
– The COVID teams that the different Managements have constituted for the follow-up of positive, vulnerable patients, home care, attention in the Residences and CSS, tracking, attention to the schools have been reinforced.
– Hospitals have activated their contingency plans,planned according to the intensity of the care demand, to meet the increase in cases that is currently being experienced and is monitored daily by the Management and Public Health.
– During the next week, the registration of COVID cases carried out by Primary Care doctors in the declaration of each case will be simplified, through the completion of the Epidemiological Survey, which currently involves a complex development work with which time will be gained for care activity.
– Posters have been published for social networks and health centers with recommendations for the population, both for positive cases and for close contacts or so that those who perform a self-test know how to act in each case.
In this way, it is intended to reduce the administrative burden on Primary Care professionals and strengthen health care and improve accessibility; for this, citizen collaboration is also necessary so that people who do not need urgent assistance for clinical reasons should not go to the health center at this time as well as those who are suffering from COVID-19 asymptomatically or mildly.
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The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, has reported the agreement reached this morning to limit the maximum price of COVID-19 self-diagnosis antigen tests to 2.94 euros after the meeting of the Interministerial Commission on Drug Prices.
The Interministerial Commission on Drug Prices is the competent body for setting the prices of medicines financed in the National Health System, in particular for the sale price of the laboratory and medical devices as well as other products. Minister Carolina Darias said that"the main objective has been to set a price as affordable as possible,always maintaining the balance so that the product is available in the pharmaceutical channel."
Thus, the agreement, adopted unanimously, has been to set the maximum retail price of antigen tests for self-diagnosis at 2.94 euros. This price will be applied to all antigen tests for self-diagnosis that are sold in pharmacies and that have been authorized to be marketed by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products.
The Director of basic portfolio of Services of the SNS and Pharmacy of the Ministry of Health will sign the resolution today. The Director of basic portfolio of Services of the SNS and Pharmacy of the Ministry of Health will sign the resolution today. Tomorrow it will be published in the BOE and will enter into force the day after its publication, that is, on Saturday, January 15.
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A new process has been brought in to use to report if you test positive on a test bought from a chemist:
The Ministry of Health launches today, Thursday, January 27, a web tool so that any citizen can officially notify their positive in COVID-19, obtained through a self-diagnosis test of SARS-CoV-2 acquired in a pharmacy. This measure speeds up the process of obtaining Temporary Disability (IT) due to COVID-19.
With this web application, hosted on www. miautotestcovid.com, the burden of calls to the 900 112 061 line is also reduced, by avoiding calls from patients who have tested positive for an antigen self-test and need to communicate it to the health system.
In this way, the process of obtaining the IT for COVID-19 is also streamlined, since the administrative management for the leave begins at the moment in which the positive in Coronavirus is registered through this new digital tool.
The use of this tool to communicate a positive case identified with a diagnostic self-test implies a responsible statement by the user of the veracity of this notification and the information included in it.
How it works
Once the citizen accesses miautotestcovid.com must fill out a simple form hosted on this website that includes five fields: health card number, secure health card verification code (CSV), mobile phone to which he wants to be called, whether or not he has symptoms and whether or not he needs sick leave.
Once the form is sent, the data provided by the user is analyzed, the case is referred to the corresponding agenda according to the circumstances of each patient to manage the leave or by medical follow-up.
If the patient meets the requirements established for automated discharge, he will be given an appointment with the centralized team of doctors in charge of processing COVID IT of mild cases. In the event that all these requirements are not met, you will be given an appointment in the COVID follow-up agenda to be attended by the staff in charge of those procedures.
In the event that any of the data provided by the patient is erroneous or is not included in the databases of the Canary Islands Health Service, the user will receive an SMS indicating that he must call the toll-free line 900 112 061 to carry out the management.
Collaboration with the Official Chambers of Pharmacists
At the same time, the Canary Islands Health Service is working with the Official Chambers of Pharmacists of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas in the integration of information systems that allow pharmacies to notify pharmacy tests to the SCS.
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My wife posed the question earlier " where are all the new case coming from? " so I did a quick calculation, and please bear in mind theses are not absolutely accurate
Including toady we have had approximately 3500 new cases with three days to go given this months daily average that you would sun=mise to be 4000+
Against in the entire month of January 6200 OK which ls circa 30% less, but look at July 2021 when there were around 500, you have to wonder what happened.
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The Canary Islands will end all COVID restrictions from next Thursday
From Radio Sintonia
" Ángel Víctor Torres, president of the Canary Islands, announced today in the Debate of the State of canarian Nationality 2022 that this Thursday, in the next Governing Council, following the technical criteria, all restrictions in relation to the COVID that remain in the Canary Islands will be suspended.
"It's not the end of the pandemic. Of course not. We will remain vigilant. It is a temporary suspension of the measures with a general character and of autonomous scope that, if the circumstances worsen, they can be reactivated, "says the regional president.
"But, without a doubt, this suspension of the rules leads us towards a new stage of more normality. A new stage in which we will continue to focus, as we have done in 2021, on improving the data of the Canarian public health."
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Radio Sintonia:
New space for pregnant women with COVID in the General Hospital of Fuerteventura.
The Health Area of Fuerteventura, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, prepares an area in the maternity floor of the General Hospital of Fuerteventura to attend to pregnant women who test positive for COVID-19.
This specific space favors the preventive measures of isolation and care in the plant of pregnant women who have tested positive for COVID-19, thus avoiding risks in the rest of the users.
The work, carried out by the Canary Islands Health Service, consisted of the separation of one of the spaces of the plant and the conditioning of a room for the care of pregnant women and their newborns.
The director of the Health Area of Fuerteventura, Sandra Celis, and the manager of the Health Services, José Luis Rodríguez Cubas, indicate that although the epidemiological situation has improved and restrictions have been relaxed, it is necessary to continue adopting preventive measures to protect vulnerable groups, as in the case of pregnant women and prevent the spread of the disease.
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Noticias:
The Spanish National Research Council says it produces antibodies against COVID-19 based on the immune system of camels.
Two years ago we published that the CSIC initiated an investigation in which the immune system of the Canarian camel (dromedary in other places) was related to try to produce nanoantibodies that block the entry of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus into the cells and that, therefore, can be used to reduce infection in patients with COVID-19.
In this sense, a team of researchers from the CSIC, the Higher Council for Scientific Research, has obtained antibodies with the ability to neutralize the most virulent variants of SARS-CoV-2, such as omicron.
"In fact, administering a single dose of these antibodies protected more than 90% of the animals that were infected with SARS-CoV-2 from death caused by COVID-19. In addition, in the vast majority of cases they managed to recover completely in two weeks," says Cadena Ser.
Therefore, these antibodies can be used as an effective therapy in patients with COVID-19, according to the results of this new research published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Immunology.
This CSIC team has already produced these antibodies in a laboratory through the use of cell cultures and announce that the production can already be carried out, on a large scale, for application as a treatment in hospitals.
The CSIC has already patented this technology and is now looking for companies interested in producing these antibodies and being able to take them to pharmacies.
Another utility
On the other hand, these antibodies have great potential for the detection of the virus, so they can be very useful for different formats of antigenic tests of SARS-CoV-2.
Researchers from the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC) led by Luis Ángel Fernández and José María Casasnovas selected the nanoantibodies that best bound to the region of the viral protein S (spike) of SARS-CoV-2 and that blocked the entry of the virus into the cell.
In vitro assays in cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 identified those with greater neutralizing activity of the virus in the antiviral platform of the CSIC institute, led by researchers Urtzi Garaigorta and Pablo Gastaminza.
The in vivo trials were carried out at the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC) by Miguel Ángel Martín Acebes and Juan Carlos Saiz. The researchers demonstrated the therapeutic potential of four of these antibodies.
Through protein engineering, the HHV regions of these antibodies have been humanized, which will allow their direct application in clinical trials. These antibodies could be administered to patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 who were at risk of progression to severe disease (e.g. immunocompromised patients, who have not generated immunity after vaccination, or who have not been vaccinated) and thus alleviate the most serious consequences of COVID-19, including death.
Camels, key
The cnb-CSIC research groups have developed these antibodies from segments generated by camel immunization in collaboration with Juan Alberto Corbera, from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Later they were cloned in E. coli bacteria at the CNB-CSIC.
"Camelids (dromedaries, llamas, alpacas, etc.) produce a type of antibodies capable of recognizing the antigen with a single protein chain, instead of two as in other animal species. Thus, the antigen recognition zone in these antibodies is smaller, and they can reach regions on the surface of viruses and bacteria otherwise inaccessible," explains Luis Ángel Fernández, who heads the CNB's bacterial engineering group.
"In the laboratory we isolate the binding zone of these antibodies, small fragments known as nanoantibodies with great capacity to block viruses and bacteria. Having sequences very similar to those of human antibodies, they can be used directly in therapy without generating rejection," says Fernández.
In addition, they have some very useful properties, such as their greater stability and resistance to extreme conditions.
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