The use of masks outdoors will only be recommended in crowds

After a month and a half of mandatory outdoor masks, this week citizens will be able to go down the street without it again. In its extraordinary meeting this Monday, the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS) has supported this measure, which was announced on Friday by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias. Once the royal decree that the Council of Ministers will approve tomorrow comes into force on Thursday, outdoor face masks will simply be “recommended” when there are crowds, according to The ministry reported in a statement.

Communities have approved the withdrawal of outdoor masks imposed by the Government on December 24, a measure highly criticized by experts, since contagion outdoors is much less likely than indoors. In the midst of an outbreak of infections, the Executive adopted its application without the technical endorsement of the alert report, which at the time recommended other actions, such as the isolation of close contacts.

The elimination of the masks also comes without going through this group of technicians or the Public Health Commission, despite the fact that the minister assured this last Wednesday, after the previous CISNS. The announcement of Darias on Friday provoked criticism from some autonomous communities that, although they agreed with the substance of the decision, preferred that it had been consulted and informed in advance.

Given the clear drop in the sixth wave of covid in Spain, the council has also approved raising the capacity limits for sports competitions, which will go from 75% to 85% in open venues and from 50% to 75% in the closed, “respecting non-pharmacological protection measures against covid-19”. In other words, in these cases, you will have to wear a mask.

This protection will also continue to be mandatory indoors, a limitation that Health has preferred to maintain even at a time when the infection rate has been below 50 per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days (on Friday there were 2,299), as happened this fall.

In the absence of the literal nature of the new rule being known on Tuesday, the measure announced by the ministry lowers the requirement for masks that existed before Christmas: at that time they were mandatory when the safety distance of 1 could not be respected, 5 meters, something that now remains a mere recommendation.