The president announces to the autonomies that he will approve a decree law tomorrow to make the mask return in open spaces
The masks are returned to the open spaces exactly six months after they cease to be mandatory on the street. Pedro Sánchez has announced at the Conference of Presidents that this Thursday an Extraordinary Council of Ministers will approve a decree law to make the use of face masks mandatory again outdoors. Although there will be exceptions, such as the practice of sports, in principle the Executive’s idea is to make the use of oral protection compulsory in any circumstance and regardless of whether or not the 1.5 meters of safety distance can be kept.
The return of outdoor masks will be the great bet of the central government to stop a sixth wave that already throws record numbers of infections because Moncloa has definitively ruled out embarking on hasty and unpopular legal modifications to tighten the restrictions just 48 hours after the start of the Christmas.
Thus, Sánchez trusts everything to expand the use of the mask this vacation and to common sense in the face of the avalanche of social and family gatherings that are coming and that will not have any type of limitation, neither within the homes nor in the premises of hostelry.
The mask ceased to be mandatory in open spaces on June 25, through a royal decree that partially modified Law 2/2021 on ‘urgent prevention, containment and coordination measures to face the health crisis’ and that was the one that made the use of a mask mandatory. Now, a new decree, in principle, will return to the wording that was changed last summer, when measures were relaxed for the improvement of the pandemic situation after overcoming the fourth wave.
The wording that was suppressed last June when Spain as a whole had an incidence of just 95 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and daily infections dropped below 5,000 established the “mandatory use of masks” for over six years on “the road public, in open air spaces and in any closed space for public use or that is open to the public ”. It only allowed the exceptions of “people who have some type of illness or respiratory difficulty”, disabled people who could not use it or “in the case of individual sport in the open air”, plus “cases of force majeure or situation of necessity or when, due to the very nature of the activities, the use of the mask is incompatible, in accordance with the indications of the health authorities “.
Generalized demand
With the return of the masks in the open spaces, the head of the central Executive has decided to endorse the express demand of a large part of the regional presidents such as those of Castilla y León, Navarra, Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community, Galicia, Basque Country, Canary Islands or Catalonia. All of them had insisted on demanding the return of face protection. A measure that only the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso in Madrid openly opposed.
Beyond the imposition of the return of the masks outdoors, Sánchez has ruled out other additional restrictions, which he could have ordered by decree and which were demanded by various autonomies, such as setting new capacities in the hotel industry, leisure and events; or establish time limitations in bars, restaurants or nightclubs.
Neither, and that was clear to Moncloa since last summer, the central Executive was not going to decree a new state of alarm to cut fundamental rights and impose measures such as the curfew; the perimeter closure of certain areas or the limitations on family gatherings or worship. This Wednesday, only the Catalan Government had demanded measures as strict as the imposition of limitation of night movements at the national level.
With this premise of not taking the restrictions to the extreme just two days before Christmas Eve, Pedro Sánchez and Health, instead of implementing big restrictions for Christmas, have opted to announce operational measures, especially to “intensify and accelerate” the vaccination process. Thus, the president promised to reinforce the devices with vaccination equipment from the armed forces, in addition to making hospitals of the Military Health Network available to speed up inoculations.
All this with the aim of giving a strong boost to immunity with a millimeter calendar: 80% of the population between 60-69 years vaccinated with a third dose before the end of the year; 80% between 50-59 years old in the week of January 24; 80% between 40-49 years old in the first week of March; 70% with the first pediatric dose in the week of February 7; and 70% with the second pediatric dose in the week of April 19.
Operational improvements
Along these lines of announcements of sanitary operational improvements to try to stop the sixth wave avoiding major restrictions such as those of 2020, Sánchez also announced that the Central Executive will authorize the hiring of retired and early retired healthcare personnel and that it will authorize the hiring of professionals with a specialist degree obtained in non-EU member states. In addition, the number of available health professionals will be increased and their working conditions will improve, reducing temporary work to below 8%. The General State Budgets will allocate 292 million euros, most of it transferred to the Autonomous Communities, for this shock plan against the expansion of Ómicron.
And a little more. The president, who has made his announcements before listening to the proposals of the regional presidents, limited himself to reeling off other measures already approved by the Public Health Commission, such as the abolition of quarantines for people who have had direct contact with an infected person. If they have the complete guideline or the decision of the health authorities of the central government to issue temporary authorizations to allow the sale in pharmacies of certain antigen tests for professional use so that they are available to the entire population.
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