Communities support that the mask is not mandatory outdoors

in a quick Interterritorial Health Council which was held this Monday because on Wednesday Minister Carolina Darias has an international agenda, the communities have given their approval to eliminate the obligation to wear a mask outdoors.

However, the Council has agreed “recommend” its use in crowds or crowded events in which the public is standing or sitting but cannot keep the safety distance of 1.5 meters. All the autonomies have voted in favor of this proposal except the Basque Country, according to regional sources.

In addition, the Interterritorial Council has approved slightly increase the capacity at sporting events, for the competitions of the National Professional Football League and the League of the Association of Basketball Clubs (ACB), as well as other massive sporting events.

Outdoors it has been increased from 75% to 85% and in closed spaces from 50% to 75%, respecting non-pharmacological protection measures against covid. Andalusia and the Community of Madrid have claimed that there is no type of restriction and the capacity is one hundred percent, but their proposal has not gone ahead, according to Council sources.

As Darias advanced last Friday, the Council of Ministers on Tuesday will approve the end of the mask outdoors and this measure will take effect on Thursdaythe day after its publication in the Official State Gazette.

Therefore, the Government will approve that the protection measure is not mandatory on the streets just one week after Congress validate the controversial decree with which Health re-imposed its use at the end of December. The decree went ahead because the Executive introduced in it the revaluation of pensions, amid criticism from the opposition, including traditional partners.

The Conference of Presidents

And it is that a good part of the experts disagree on the need to wear a mask in the streets, especially if there are no crowds, since infections occur especially indoors. Despite this, several regional presidents demanded that the Conference of Presidents which took place two days before Christmas Eve, with the purpose of curbing contagion during Christmas, a time when population concentrations occur in some points.

The mask was already mandatory if the safety distance could not be maintained and the experts therefore requested other measures such as limit gatherings or close indoorsbut those restrictions were left in the hands of the communities and the Government only approved the use of the mask outside in any circumstance, except to practice sports.

Since then and especially with the drop in incidence in the sixth wave, There have been several autonomies that have requested the relaxation of the measure. However, Darias’ announcement, three days after the decree was validated by Congress due to the ruse of introducing the revaluation of pensions, has aroused regional criticism, more for the forms than for the substance and especially among the regions governed by the PP.

critics for the forms

Thus, the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayusomade the minister ugly on Friday to be “dizzying” the population: “First the covid passport in some places yes and in others, no; the mask was important and then not, and it has not contained the sixth wave. It is also being shown that in outdoor spaces it is not necessary, only if the place is very crowded & rdquor ;.

At the same time, that of the Xunta, Alberto Nunez Feijoocensored “the feeling of swinging and insecurity”. “We would save ourselves a lot of sterile discussions if the Ministry accepted that when a proposal is based on clinical criteria we should not reject it only because of who makes it”, he reproached him.

Similarly, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Morenocriticized the “lurches” of the Executive and accused him of not having listened to a scientific committee before nor to the communities, which are the ones with the powers.

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In turn, the president of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañuecoconsidered the announcement “electoralist” and a sign that President Pedro Sánchez “is only right when he rectify”.

And, even if the imposition is eliminated, the president of Cantabria, Miguel Angel Revillaannounced that he will continue to take it outdoors because, in his opinion, its use has been “positive”. “Let’s not fall into the feeling that since they tell us that we no longer have to wear a mask outdoors, this is controlled,” she concluded.