The mask in closed places, the last measure against Covid without a fixed date to be eliminated

© Marta Fernández – Europa Press – Archive
People with face masks inside a clothing store

The face maskone of the most characteristic elements left by the pandemic, is on its way to being the last to disappear. At least, it is the only one that does not yet have a planned date to stop being used in closed spaces. At best, the government insists that will be “ready”without knowing exactly when.

Ministry and communities took this Thursday the last step in the progressive dismantling of measures and restrictions once morest Covid setting a horizon for abolish the obligation to remain in isolation for seven for people with mild Covid or without symptoms. This measure is part of a broader strategy to face the phase that opens from now on, with a less exhaustive control of infections and focused on serious cases and on the most vulnerable people due to age or illness.

This decision, which is expected to be dated next week, is in turn a continuation of the one to eliminate the obligation for contacts of a positive person for Covid to do quarantinewhether or not they are vaccinated. Last fall, the capacity or time restrictionsfor example.

It is in this context that the mask remains the most striking reminder that we are in a pandemic. Although, in a phase other than the most critical one that experts and health authorities are already shelving but that for the moment it is not enough for the Government to set a specific date to stop using it in closed spaces, since outdoor It’s been a month since they passed -for the second time- into history.

Government Decision

Since its mandatory use was decreed, in June 2020, all decisions related to masks depend on the central governmentfirst through royal decrees and since last month, empowering the Minister of Health, Carolina Dariasto decide the necessary modifications.

That is why several regional sources were malicious a few days ago if, as has happened on other occasions, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, the suppression of the masks inside is saved as a announcement for the Conference of Presidents to be held this Sunday in La Palma. It would not be the first time. In June 2021, Sanchez announced by surprise that it would no longer be mandatory outdoor use and six months later, in December last year, the decision to reimpose it in outdoor spaces was the most notable announcement of another meeting with the regional presidents.

At the moment, the Government limits itself to saying that the end of the masks will arrive “very soon”, According to what Sánchez has said on two occasions in the last week. “It is true that everything indicates that when is getting closer, but for us the when is as important as the how“, Darias intervened this Thursday, without offering more specificity.

Schools, hospitals or residences

Although it has not always been the case, every time he is asked, Sánchez affirms that the decision to eliminate the mandatory use of the mask indoors will be made following listen to the autonomous communities. Some have been asking for weeks to start inside the schools and others already believe that the time has come, at least, to open the debate.

Catalonia, Madrid, Andalusia and Murcia They asked Darias last week to exempt from the use of a mask in the classroomsin line with what the pediatricians, which warn of the detriments in learning that this complement has for the youngest students. They also consider that there is no evidence that the mask has made a big difference in contagion by omicron between children over six years of age -forced to wear it- and those under that age -who did not have to do so-.

On the other hand, the Madrid Minister of Health, Enrique RuizEscudero, attended the meeting last Thursday in which the minister and councilors agreed to start monitoring only serious cases of Covid before moving to a sentinel surveillance system, also emphasizing that now “it’s time to open the debate regarding when, how and where to stop using” the mask.

In any case, Madrid does not present it as something immediate, but “gradually” and with a control of whether the end of the obligation to wear it might increase infections. It should be decided by the general directors of Public Health, in a technical body such as the Public Health Commission, to which other communities that are less clear if the time has come have also appealed.

Nor is it regarding eliminating masks altogether. Madrid, for example, argues that continue to be used in vulnerable settings such as hospitals and nursing homes of elderly. For its part, the proposal made by the Alerts Conference for the surveillance and control system that must be put in place following the end of the acute phase of the pandemic also contemplates that when a person has mild Covid or no symptoms and goes out on the streetwear the mask for a few days, as a precautionary measure.