The bars, restaurants and entertainment venues in the Region that request the Covid certificate will be able to occupy 100% of the capacity
The end of the mandatory nature of the mask outdoors will also mean changes in school protocols. As of Thursday, 8.2 million children and young people – some 300,000 in the Region of Murcia – will not have to wear this protection when they are in their schoolyards, provided that they can, yes, keep the safety distance 1.5 meters long, government sources explained to this newspaper. Even so, from the Ministry of Health they summoned the press conference after today’s Council of Ministers, and even the publication, tomorrow in the BOE, of the new decree on masks to know all the details of the new measure.
Schoolchildren will experience the first relief from the strict restrictions that were decreed after they returned to the classroom in September 2020, after the harsh confinement of the spring of that year. In these last 16 months, students have worn masks both in the classrooms and on the patios, in addition to receiving classes with the windows open or forming bubble groups, with little contact with the rest of the classmates.
Although not definitively, the mask will progressively disappear from the urban landscape. Yesterday, the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities confirmed almost unanimously, with the only abstention from the Basque Country, the elimination of the outdoor obligation of this element of protection. But the extraordinary Interterritorial Council in which the decision was made also agreed to recommend that the mask continue to be used in crowded streets and in crowded standing events (concerts, for example) and in which the public is seated, but cannot be held. the safety distance of 1.5 meters. Tomorrow’s decree will specify all the casuistry.
Pedreño denounced the “lack of coordination” of the Ministry, which went “in three days from a unilateral decree to summoning the autonomies”
The abolition of the mandatory nature of the mask was advanced in a radio interview by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, last Friday, only three days after the Congress of Deputies approved, in a controversial vote, the validation of the decree that allowed to prolong this limitation.
The Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, denounced the “lack of coordination” in this matter. “The Ministry unilaterally issued a decree and now calls us to eliminate the mandatory nature of the mask outdoors,” he lamented.
sports shows
Likewise, yesterday’s Interterritorial agreed to increase the capacity of outdoor sporting events (open stadiums) from 75% to 85% and from 50% to 75% indoors (pavilions). From March 1, the capacity will be complete.
The outdoor mask became mandatory again in Spain on December 24, after it was agreed by the Conference of Presidents held two days earlier. It was the only measure that was agreed upon then, when the Ómicron variant had begun to shoot up the number of infections and a complicated Christmas was expected, but from the first moment, this decision ran into criticism from specialists.
The Ministry asks for an alternative for those who cannot renew the certificate because they do not have a PCR
Outdoor mouth protection has been the most symbolic, and most controversial, restriction of the pandemic because it was not supported by scientific evidence. Experts have explained that the vast majority of infections (up to 97%, according to a study) occur indoors, when they are poorly ventilated, while outdoors the risk of infection is very low. “It is not useful,” considers Óscar Zurriaga, vice president of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology.
De-escalation in the Community
In the Region of Murcia, the Ministry continues with a progressive de-escalation, while the incidence of the sixth wave continues to decline. Starting tomorrow, the hotel, nightlife and celebration rooms will be able to occupy 100% of the capacity if they ask their clients for the Covid certificate. If they do not, the limit will be set at 75% of the capacity. This measure is adopted after “leaving without effect” the document that until now regulated the alert levels.
If the trend continues to be positive, next week the reopening of the dance floors will be authorized, according to the counselor Juan José Pedreño. For now, the public must remain seated at the table. Both in nightlife and in bars and restaurants, the limit of ten diners per table indoors and twelve outdoors is also maintained.
The Covid passport will remain valid until February 25. The Ministry insists on asking the Ministry for an alternative for those who cannot renew their Covid certificate because their infection was not diagnosed through a PCR, but with an antigen test, something that the European Union (EU) does not recognize for passport purposes. The Ministry will offer its own document, but this will not be enough to be able to travel abroad, recognized Jaime Pérez, spokesman for Health.
The PSOE demands the elimination of restrictions in concert halls
The socialist regional deputy Magdalena Sánchez Blesa demanded that the regional government eliminate restrictions on concert halls in the Region of Murcia and “stop mistreating and despising the cultural sector, one of the hardest hit by the pandemic.”
«In the last 24 months, the concert halls have been unable to carry out their activity for 22, which is the programming of live musical shows, while at present the concert halls of almost all of Spain can work with a standing audience and at one hundred by one hundred of capacity”, denounced the deputy. Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community, Madrid, Extremadura, Aragón, La Rioja, Asturias and Galicia, among other autonomies, have announced the end of the restrictions, warned Sánchez Blesa. “However, the Government of López Miras rows in the opposite direction and extends them for three more weeks, until February 25,” she lamented.
«A concert hall is a cultural space that develops a program of live shows, just like a theater, auditorium, etc. These cultural spaces assume high costs and in many cases, they need to reach 75 or 80% of the capacity, even more, to be able to afford it », he explained. The socialist parliamentarian pointed out that the current regulations of the Region oblige the clients of these rooms to be seated and with a distance of 1.5 meters between groups. In this way, the space destined for the public in furniture, corridors and distances is lost, which translates into a real occupation that barely reaches 12% or 13%.