Spain Next To Scrap Mandatory Outdoor Masks, Other Measures

Spain is gradually rolling back on Covid restrictions and will next week lift its requirement for people to wear masks outdoors as a measure against the coronavirus. As the contagion slowly recedes in the country.

Health Minister Carolina Darias, said the cabinet plans to approve an end to mandatory outdoor mask-wearing at its weekly meeting on Tuesday and make it effective two days later.

“We said it would last only while it was strictly necessary,” Darias said. As contagion rates and other indicators have fallen for several days, the government considers the COVID-19 situation to have eased, she said.

Spain joins several other European countries that have begun to roll back and those who have completely removed COVID-related restrictions. Outdoor masks are no longer compulsory in France and Italy announced on it would release a timetable for a phase-out of restrictions.

Regional authorities in Spain’s Northern Aragon and Basque Country regions as well as in the Canary Islands have also lifted some restrictions on socializing.

Aragon dropped a rule requiring a COVID vaccination or PCR test certificate to access bars and restaurants and scrapped all restrictions on opening hours and capacity. The Basque Country stopped requiring the pass and Canary Islands now permits bars and restaurants to ask for it on voluntary basis.

Catalonia, Spain’s second-largest region, scrapped the COVID pass requirement a week ago.

The country has reported a steadily decreasing contagion rate, reaching 2,421 cases per 100,000 people on Thursday, down from almost 3,400 in early January.

Despite the surge in cases between November and January as Omicron spread, hospital admissions and deaths remain well below those seen in earlier waves of the pandemic.