Spain says goodbye to the masks

The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday the end of the imposition of masks in most interiors.

It does so 699 after the first order that required the use of this protection was published in the

Gazette (BOE), on May 20, 2020, during the first state of alarm.

With this decision, as of Wednesday it will no longer be necessary to wear face masks in covered spaces, except in public transport, discretionary (such as taxis), in health services of all kinds, residences (for visitors and workers) and pharmacies.

In the workplace they will not be mandatory "as a general rule", in the words of the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias.

The occupational risk prevention services of each company will have to take charge of evaluating its use, "according to the evaluation of the position".

The recommendation of the technicians of the alert presentation of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System is that it continue to be worn when a distance of 1.5 meters with colleagues cannot be maintained.

One day after the regulation was published, most large companies and public administrations had not yet made a resolution.

The use of the mask goes from being an obligation to a personal option for each citizen, who will have to evaluate whether to wear it based on their level of vulnerability to the virus, the spaces they frequent and the precautions they wish to take.

Darias has stressed that it is "an important day" for this decision, which is taken by virtue of "a favorable epidemiological context, which allows the relaxation of one of the most symbolic elements of the pandemic", and thanks to "the high vaccination coverage.

The new rule, which will be published on Wednesday in the BOE, will capture the places where the mask is still mandatory.

They will be, as the minister has listed, "means of air transport, rail, cable, buses and public transport for passengers and ships".

In the latter, when the distance of 1.5 meters cannot be maintained.

Also the centers, services and health establishments that appear included in Royal Decree 1277/2003.

The text includes more than a hundred centers or services, including hospitals (where patients admitted to their rooms will have it removed), medical consultations and those of other health professionals (such as a physiotherapist), health centers , dental clinics, pregnancy interruption or fertility centers, blood transfusion centers, tissue banks,

mental health centers, pharmacy offices or orthopedics.

They will also continue to be mandatory in social health centers (residences) for visitors and workers, but not for those who live there.

The Ministry of Health, in addition, insists on making a "responsible use" of protection, beyond mandatory.

Darias has emphasized the people most vulnerable to becoming seriously ill with covid: people over 60 years of age, pregnant women and immunosuppressed patients;

also to teachers who present any of these factors.

He recommends that they continue to cover their mouths in small or poorly ventilated interiors where crowds occur, especially if they are going to spend a lot of time inside them.

More information

The end of mandatory masks indoors: a guide to use in closed spaces

The new norm replaces the one that was in force and eliminates some of the limitations it imposed, such as the obligation to wear a face mask in mass and sporting events.

It will no longer be mandatory, for example, in football or basketball games, whether indoors or outdoors.

Almost two years of indoor masks

The end of the masks is neither the first step in relaxing their use nor will it be the last.

Before, it was allowed to go without it in open spaces, and it remains to continue advancing in the enclosures where it is still mandatory.

This will be decided based on the progress of infections and hospital occupation.

Public transport could be the next to get rid of the face mask, while there are experts who advocate keeping them forever in health centers, at least in winter, the high season for respiratory viruses.

Although Health hopes not to have to back down on the decision, it does not rule it out either.

“One of the lessons of this pandemic is that we have to be prepared for present threats, but also for future ones.

The Government of Spain, hand in hand with the autonomous communities and experts, is not lowering its guard”, said Darias in an interview published over the weekend in EL PAÍS.

When the rule comes into force, on April 20, exactly 700 days will have passed since the imposition of the mask indoors.

Two years minus one month.

On May 20, 2020, the following text was published in the BOE: “The use of a mask will be mandatory on public roads, in outdoor spaces and in any closed space for public use or that is open to the public, provided that It is not possible to maintain an interpersonal safety distance of at least two meters.

Until then it was only mandatory on public transport.

The order was intended to remain "during the entire validity of the state of alarm and its possible extensions."

But it got longer.

Even hardening.

What was an order took the form of law in March 2021, when Congress approved that a mask must be worn at all times and places, open or closed, regardless of distance.

He did it almost by mistake.

The Ministry of Health explained that the processing times of the text had left it out of context and advocated qualifying it.

But it did not do so until June, when a royal decree relaxed the use of the mask outdoors.

The next decision came in December 2021, when the Government decided to reinstate the face mask outdoors in the face of the advance of the wave of the omicron variant.

It was a measure highly criticized by experts, who branded it cosmetic.

It lasted a month and a half, until February, when it was decreed again that it was no longer compulsory abroad.

With this new step, Spain joins the majority of the countries of the European Union, where the mask is no longer mandatory in most interiors.

Italy and Portugal are the two neighbors that still maintain it.