As of next Tuesday, February 8, the Government of Spain will eliminate the mandatory use of face masks outdoors, a measure that was restored in December in the midst of the peak of infections due to the variant omicron.
Although the decision has not yet been made official through a decree, the information was released by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, in an interview with ‘Cadena Ser’.
“Next Tuesday we will take to the Council of Ministers the Royal Decree by virtue of which we will eliminate the mandatory use of the mask outdoors”, affirmed the minister in dialogue with the aforementioned media.
Thus, on Monday, February 7, the minister and the health authorities will discuss the issue in the Interterritorial Council, where the central government and representatives of the country’s regions are, to approve the public health measure to eliminate the use of outdoor masks.
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Spanish authorities carrying out a covid-19 detection test in the country.
The controversy surrounding the measure
However, the decision regarding the use of the outdoor face mask has not been without controversy.
As reported by the newspaper ‘La Vanguardia’, the mandatory nature of the mask in outdoor spaces was decreed again on December 22, 2021 and began to take effect from December 24 due to the considerable increase in cases due to the omicron variant.
A few days ago, more precisely on February 1, Congress approved the decree that extended the use of the mask outdoors, a discussion that was not without controversy, so now many are wondering why to withdraw the use of the mask when the decision dragged on just a few days ago.
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We said that it was going to be for the time strictly necessary, until the indicators, as is being verified, advised a different measure
In this regard, Minister Darias affirmed that the decision was adopted due to the uncertainty generated by the appearance and omicron expansion.
“The return of the mask abroad was due to the increase in cases that we had at that time and especially given the uncertainty of what this new omicron variant meant, that at that time we did not know what its impact on healthcare capacity would be.“, he claimed.
The minister also assured that since December there was clarity that the measure would be in force until the covid-19 indicators improve in Spain, which, according to his words, has been happening for days.
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Spain has more than 10.2 million infections since the start of the pandemic.
“We said that it was going to be for the strictly necessary time, until the indicators, as is being verified, advised a different measure. For several weeks now, we have seen how each and every one of the indicators is improving day by day, especially the virus transmission indicator.”, added the official in dialogue with ‘Cadena Ser’.
Spain thus joins several European countries that began to eliminate the restrictions imposed on account of the omicron variant.
For example, Denmark became the first country to remove all restrictions due to covid-19, while France also removed the measure that required the use of face masks outdoors.
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