Malaga Pharmacies Await Approval To Sell Rapid Covid Tests In Time For The Summer

Malaga Pharmacies Await Approval To Sell Rapid Covid Tests In Time For The Summer.

The purchase of rapid COVID-19 tests in pharmacies without a prescription will soon be a reality after a review by the Ministry of Health. The pharmaceutical sector is now waiting for approval by royal decree that allows the sale of these products, which is already carried out in countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Portugal.

The news comes as Spain and the UK are getting ready to lift restrictions on essential travel only between the two countries, with a speech forecast to be made soon by UK PM Boris Johnson. One of the main stumbling blocks has been the availability of cheap PCR tests but this matter has now been solved, according to Grant Shapps, the UK’s Minister for Transport.

According to the Ministry of Health, the sale of rapid coronavirus tests will expand the capital with it’s diagnostic capacity and will help reduce the pressure on health centers.

Despite requests from professionals in the sector and from various autonomous communities, such as Catalonia, The Ministry of Health was reluctant to authorise the purchase of rapid tests without a prescription.

The current decree – Royal Decree 1662/2000, of September 29 – requires the existence of a prescription for the sale of self-diagnostic tests to the public, with the exception of some products such as pregnancy, fertility, HIV virus, or blood glucose tests.

This will now be modified by a new decree law, the text of which is already drawn up and available to the public for viewing on the Ministry of Health’s website. The declaration period began on April 30 and will last until May 10, which is the final date of the public hearing to which the ministry has submitted the decree.

Expanding the diagnostic capacity is one of the objectives pursued by this regulation, which, according to The Ministry of Health, “will allow the general population to carry out tests without the intervention of a health professional, which on the one hand will reduce to a certain extent the healthcare pressure of health centers and will allow the rapid identification of suspected positive cases ”.

Along these lines, the ministry considered it necessary to establish these extraordinary measures to facilitate the detection of COVID-19 in the province.

Source: laopiniondemalaga