Spanish Government Considers Lifting Requirement To Wear Face Masks Indoors
Spain News
Published: 22 February 2022 16:19 CET
Speaking from the Moncloa Palace in Madrid yesterday, Monday, February 21, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed that the government is considering lifting the ruling for wearing face masks indoors.
The Prime Minister, who was at a press conference with visiting Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, wouldn’t say when exactly this might happen but did say "It would be something that is welcomed by society in general, and we hope it will be sooner rather than later."
Thanks to the high number of people who have received the vaccine booster, Denmark was in fact the first country to end all Covid restrictions, including wearing masks indoors but cases have now once again risen sharply there.
Spain has equally had a high uptake of the Covid third vaccine, or the booster, but for now, the Ministry of Health will not follow Denmark in its decision.
Sanchez said, “We have shared that, effectively, the necessary condition to repeal the indoor mask is to have a vaccination percentage like the one that Spanish or Danish societies have.”
“We will do it when science and public health professionals say so,” he concluded.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), 91 per cent of the Spanish population has now been fully vaccinated, with 49.7 per cent having received their third ‘booster’ jab.
That is in contrast to Denmark, where 81.7 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated and 62 per cent have had their ‘booster’ vaccine.
The ‘Our World in Data’, Oxford University platform, shows that infection rates in the Nordic country are much higher though. The rate of new cases per million Danish inhabitants last Thursday was 6,741. In Spain, it was 626, according to a report by elperiodico.com.
The Covid pandemic in Spain is improving each day, with some regions already modifying their restrictions.
For example, from Wednesday, school children in Catalonia will no longer need to self-isolate if they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid. Isolation will only be required if they test positive themselves.
The Spanish government has however criticised the move, with Health Minister Carolina Darias saying that the whole of the country should “act as one”.
Spain’s downward trend of the virus continued over the weekend, with 786.05 cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period, recorded on Monday. That is a drop from the 919.48 cases per 100,000 that were registered on Friday.
There were also 48,778 new positive cases, which is 20,000 fewer than the previous week.
The pressure on hospitals is also continuing to ease. Monday saw 7.56 per cent of hospital beds occupied, a drop from the 13.79 per cent that was recorded on Friday.
The number of deaths from Covid was also slightly lower but is still too high, with 464 being registered over the weekend.
Source
https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/sanchez-hopes-masks-20220222092758-nt.html
https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2022/02/21/president-sanchez-hints-at-removing-masks-indoors-in-spain/
Image Credit: La Moncloa - Flickr
