Politicians will 'hurry' to remove face masks but they should wait, top doctor says

It might feel to some as though the pandemic is almost over. Minimal restrictions are currently in place in Catalonia – only the obligation to wear face masks in indoor spaces. Key metrics such as hospitalizations and the number of patients in intensive care have been dropping continually for weeks ever since the peak of the sixth wave spurred by the Omicron variant. 

However, infections are still high, and even though hospital numbers have been dropping, they remain considerably high as well. New infections also always leave the door open for new variants to pop up as well, in any part of the world. 

Doctor Robert Güerri, head of infection diseases at Hospital del Mar, one of the biggest health centers in Catalonia, predicts that the obligation to wear face masks in indoor settings will soon be removed, but he points out that this would be a “political decision.” 

“I would be more conservative on [the use of masks] and I would wait more time to see how things are going,” Dr Güerri explains. “But I think politicians are in a hurry to lift this restriction, they want to remove the masks.” 

Despite this, the doctor thinks that the use of masks will likely be kept in certain scenarios such as in healthcare facilities and possibly public transportation, “but not in general life.”

“New paradigm” of the pandemic

Dr Güerri believes we are entering a “new paradigm” with the virus, with the worst of the health crisis perhaps behind us already. 

For Dr Güerri, Omicron was a “gamechanger” that infected 1.5 million people in Catalonia, which ultimately assisted with immunization levels, adding to the vaccination rates of roughly 80%. 

This leaves us in a position where “there has been a shift,” Dr Güerri, who is also Covid-19 Hospitalization Coordinator at Hospital del Mar, said to Catalan News. He believes that waves of the pandemic coming and putting a halt to society are over. 

Infections “probably all our lives”

Dr Güerri warned that infections are likely here to stay for “probably all our lives in one way or another, similar to what the flu is.” While the medical professional doesn’t envisage massive waves of the virus disrupting our lives, he does think clusters in certain spaces is possible, such as in nursing home facilities, and foresees problems for immunosuppressed people. 

“I don’t like to say this is going to be like the flu because it is completely different in some aspects; it is more severe and more transmissible, so the impact it has in our lives is even bigger than the flu,” he adds. 

“But in some ways, it’s going to be similar [to the flu]. We’re going to see infections throughout the year and probably in some times of the year we’re going to see an increase in hospitalizations and an increase in sick people, Dr Güerri explains. “I think it’s going to impact the healthcare system.”