As of this Friday, December 24, the mask will be mandatory in Spain at all times outdoors, and the 2 exceptions.
As of this Friday, December 24, the mask will be mandatory in Spain at all times outdoors. The Council of Ministers approved this Thursday the decree law that gives the green light to this new regulation, which seeks to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Measure announced yesterday by Pedro Sánchez has been detailed 24 hours later by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, who analyzed at a press conference the only exceptions for not wearing masks outdoors. There are two cases: when “individual sport” is carried out and when walking through a “natural space” such as “in the field on the beach” as long as a distance of 1.5 meters with the rest of the people can be guaranteed. And although it is thought that cities are more likely to register agglomerations, this obligation is also imposed in towns. After being consulted by this end, Darias has indicated that the mask will also have to be worn “if a person is in a square in a rural area.”
The minister insisted that this is a decision “endorsed by scientists” and that despite the current high incidence the situation is not like in previous Christmases due to the wide “vaccination coverage”, although she stressed that it is important ” do not lower your guard.
“Minimum effectiveness”
However, the General Council of Official Medical Associations (CGCOM), through the COVID-19 Advisory Commission, has recalled that requiring the use of masks outdoors “has minimal effectiveness by itself, although it may indirectly encourage their use indoors, on terraces and crowds ».
In this sense, the CGCOM has warned in statements collected by Europa Press that the severity of this new wave of the pandemic may mean the “bankruptcy of the National Health System and the professionals who support it.” For this reason, they highlight the need to adopt new public health measures to prevent the lower severity of cases in the vaccinated population from “trivializing the damage to health and well-being that is occurring.” Thus, they encourage administrations and those responsible to “become aware of the deep malaise, discouragement and exhaustion of doctors and other health professionals.”
In addition, they express their doubts about the obligatory nature of the COVID Certificate: «With high vaccination rates and a variant that can be transmitted by the immunized, requiring a passport does not guarantee the control of transmission in closed premises and can give a false security that relaxes the protection”.
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