One month before the general elections, the Health Council has agreed to remove the mandatory use of masks. It will no longer be necessary to wear a mask when entering a pharmacy or during a visit to a nursing home or a health centre. It’s use will continue, however, in areas where there may be patients such as cancer units, in emergency rooms, operating theatres and ICUs where they have always been used.
The decision means ending one of the last protection measures against Covid and returning to the pre-pandemic situation making way for the end of the health crisis.
But for it to enter into force there is still one more step. This should take place on Friday, when the matter will be debated at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers, and where the recommendation submitted by the Ministry of Health will be discussed.
The Community of Madrid was the first to request the measure last February due to the good epidemiological situation. Experts in Immunology and Public Health also advised the withdrawal.
However, the decision, four weeks before the general elections, has been described as “electoralist.”
The mask was imposed in 2020 during the worst period of the pandemic, when the numbers of deaths and those affected by Covid were running out of control. Gradually, during the last three years, the Government has been relaxing its use, first outdoors, then on public transport and now in social and health centres.
