Outdoor masks, no obligation from Friday 11 February but you must always carry them with you. The masks remain mandatory indoors until March 31 and outdoors in case of gatherings. This is what the ordinance signed by the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, provides. While decisions are awaited regarding the state of emergency expiring on March 31st. Meanwhile, the governor Vincenzo De Luca announced that “in Campania we will be more cautious as usual than in the rest of Italy and I think it is reasonable to have a few more weeks of obligation to wear a mask”.
THE ORDER – The ordinance of the Minister of Health states that “until March 31, 2022 it is compulsory throughout the country to wear respiratory protection devices in indoor places other than private homes”.
The provision also specifies that the obligation “does not exist when, due to the characteristics of the places or the factual circumstances, isolation from non-cohabiting persons is continuously guaranteed. In any case, the protocols and anti-contagion guidelines provided for economic, productive, administrative and social activities, as well as guidelines for the consumption of food and drinks in public places or places open to the public “.
“The provisions on the use of respiratory protection devices – continues the document – can in any case be waived only in application of protocols validated by the Technical-Scientific Committee”. It is also specified that the use of the mask “complements and does not replace the other measures of protection from contagion”.
OBLIGATION TO BRING MASKS WITH YOU – It is mandatory, until March 31, to always carry the mask with you and also wear it outdoors in the event of a crowd, according to the provisions of the ordinance.
“Without prejudice to what is otherwise provided by specific laws or by specific health protocols or guidelines, in outdoor places – the document reads – it is mandatory throughout the national territory to always have street protection devices with you breathing apparatus and to wear them where there are gatherings or crowds “.
NO MASKS DURING SPORTS ACTIVITIES – During sporting activity it is not mandatory to wear anti-Covid protective masks, underlines the ordinance signed by the Minister of Health. The provision also reminds that “children under the age of six; people with pathologies or disabilities incompatible with the use of the mask, as well as people who have to communicate are not obliged to wear respiratory protection devices. with a disabled person so that they cannot make use of the device “.
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY – For Matteo Bassettidirector of the Clinic of Infectious Diseases of the San Martino hospital in Genoa, “the stop to outdoor masks is an excellent sign. The situation has improved and we can say it: outdoor masks have been of little use and in general are of little use. . It is a highly cosmetic measure, in fact the measure was taken when Omicron arrived and it was facade and not of relevance. It is a first step on the road to removing the mask indoors, “he tells Adnkronos Health.
The stop is “an expected and necessary fact, which goes towards a normalization and a self-responsibility of each of us in a condition that is objectively improving” comments the virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco, professor of the University of Milan. “Outdoors there is no such great risk of contagion,” says the expert at Adnkronos Health. And the obligatory nature of the mask “was a passing rule. So now we can take it off. Let’s do it – concludes Pregliasco – but with care and prudence”.
“At this point the outdoor masks have become useless, indoors they still have an impact” but “I think that in a couple of months they could also be eliminated indoors, as long as the curve decreases” says the virologist Andrea Crisanti, director of the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua, to the microphones of ‘Un Giorno da Pecora’ on Rai Radio1. “I would keep them on the means of transport for a while longer – explains Crisanti – indoors, in large rooms, I would also take them away. But it depends on the transmission” of the virus. “With low transmission – adds the virologist – like last year in spring-summer I think they can be eliminated in certain circumstances”.
While Massimo Andreonihead of infectious disease at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome and scientific director of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit), stresses that stopping the obligation to wear an outdoor mask “will inevitably lead to some more contagion, especially with Omicron so widespread and with the high number of cases still being registered “.
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