The Minister of Health of the Basque Government, Gotzone Sagardui, has stressed that some consultations will be postponed that are not considered urgent.

Thus, he has indicated that from now on “will be prioritized” acute health problems such as respiratory infections and fever, sintrom control and care for patients with coronavirus, he said.

At a press conference after the Governing Council, Sagardui said that Osakidetza will postpone primary care consultations “that are not particularly urgent”, which will include follow-up appointments for patients with chronic diseases, such as heart failure or chronic bronchitis, due to the rise in healthcare pressure caused by covid.

The counselor recalled that Osakidetza is in the second scenario of the Contingency Plan against the pandemic and this “forces us to have to schedule fewer surgeries and also implies that primary care” suffers “, since follow-up consultations will be delayed and henceforth only “necessary” analytics will be done, always guaranteeing those that “cannot wait”.

When a patient is affected by the suspension of a follow-up consultation, Osakidetza will contact the affected person, explained the counselor, who has asked that health centers not be called to ask if the appointment is kept. “Until Osakidetza tells you otherwise, go to the consultation,” he insisted.

The counselor has warned that the Basque Country is “in one of the worst moments of the virus’ expansion, the day before a time when personal interactions are more intense and frequent”. According to the latest data, yesterday they were registered in Euskadi 1251 new positives, 260 people are hospitalized in the plant and there are 74 people on the FIA. In addition, the cumulative incidence rate in 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants is 745.96 cases, which is 21 more than in the last balance.

Given this, the Minister of Health, Gotzone Sagardui, has already advanced that in the coming days she will ask the LABI advisory council to extreme measures.

Vaccination of boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 11

Sagardui has ensured that Osakidetza is ready to vaccinate children between 5 and 11 years old against covid-19 as of December 15 starting with those older than this age range.

The counselor has ruled on this process after the Public Health Commission has agreed on Tuesday to extend the vaccination against covid-19 to this group, which accumulates the highest accumulated incidence of infections in this sixth wave.

Thus, the counselor recalled that the commission has announced the receipt of 1.3 million pediatric doses on December 13 and 2.4 million the first week of January and that the inoculation will begin on December 15.