The Government has announced that as of next Wednesday the mandatory wearing of facemasks outdoors will be withdrawn due to the improvement in the coronavirus incidence data following the earlier avalanche of cases caused by the omicron variant during the sixth wave.
According to Moncloa sources, the measure will be approved by the Council of Ministers after which it will be debated in the Interterritorial Council with the autonomous communities.
Following a reduction in the number of cases being reported on a daily basis, and with the lowering the accumulated incidence in the last 14 days to 2,420.63 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, Health will propose the measure to autonomous communities at the next Interterritorial Council.
It will predictably be ratified by Royal Decree by the Council of Ministers next Tuesday and will enter into force on Wednesday following it’s publication in the Official State Gazette.
On Cadena Ser, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, confirmed the intention of the government to relax the measure that has been in force since 24 December, to stop the advance of the omicron variant in the population, just ahead of the Christmas holidays.
“I confirm that next Tuesday we will take the Royal Decree to the Council of Ministers where we will remove the mandatory use of masks outdoors,” said the Minister. “It has been a measure that was necessary at the time but now the indicators advise a different measure.”
She pointed out that the indicators “are improving” and “especially” the one that denotes the level of circulation of the virus. This, according to the minister, ” has decreased by 30% in recent weeks since the decline in the number of cases began.”
