READ THIS UPDATE FIRST: Spain to scrap indoor face mask rule on April 20th
In early February, the Spanish government decided that face masks would no longer be required outdoors after making their use mandatory again in December 2021 when Spain was struggling to contain record Omicron cases.
As the country's sixth coronavirus wave has since subsided, the attention has turned to when face masks will stop being compulsory in indoor public settings.
On Sunday March 6th, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated for the second time in a week that the rule would be lifted "soon, very soon".
Sánchez did stress however that the decision is in the hands of Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias, who will have to meet with regional authorities and health experts to reach some consensus regarding the indoor face mask rule.
Spanish epidemiologists did suggest in February that masks indoors would likely continue to be mandatory until at least the summer of 2022, either when the fortnightly infection rate falls below 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants or when there is no longer community transmission.
Spain's epidemiological situation has improved drastically over the past month but the infection rate is still above 400 cases per 100,000.
Although scientific evidence will no doubt play a big part in this, the final decision will more likely be influenced by the Spanish government's change in stance regarding the pandemic and its desire to return to normality, particularly in terms of tourism and the economy.
Spain wants to lead a global push for Covid-19 to be monitored as an endemic disease similar to seasonal influenza, which explains why this week they will go from reporting on infections on a daily basis to twice a week, and from publishing vaccination rates every work day to once a week.
France, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway and the United Kingdom are some of the European countries that have already lifted their indoor face mask rules.
Most Spanish health experts continue to be in favour of a gradual de-escalation of the indoor mask rule, rather than eliminating the requirement from all indoor public spaces all at once.
In mid-February Spain’s paediatricians proposed that masks first be scrapped from school classrooms, acting as “a mirror for the rest of society” of what this would mean for Covid infections.
So far, Catalonia is the only region to have done this, and not all paediatricians agree with the proposal, even though children’s capacity to develop serious Covid symptoms and infect others is lower than for adults.
So the main question that remains is what Prime Minister Sánchez meant by “very soon”, as well as the conclusions reached at a key meeting between Spain’s Health Ministry and the regions on March 10th in Zaragoza.
For epidemiologists, removing the rule in the coming days would be too soon, and most believe the fortnightly infection rate must, at the very least, be below 100 cases for masks to no longer be required indoors.
At the current rate of descent, this could happen in three to five weeks.
The Catalan ‘case study’, the only region which is currently testing how ditching masks from classrooms will affect infections, could also play a pivotal role in deciding whether masks are not required in some indoor settings but are still mandatory in others.
Whatever the outcome, a final decision by Spain’s health ministry will affect the whole national territory as mask regulations - unlike other Covid restrictions - are set by the Spanish government, not the regional governments.
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