Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias confirmed end the end of January that face masks would no longer be compulsory on public transport, a measure that has been in place in Spain for almost three years.
On Tuesday February 7th, the Spanish government finally approved the measure and it will enter into force when it’s published in the Official State Bulletin (BOE), which usually occurs the following day.
This means that from Wednesday February 8th, masks will no longer be required on public transport.
The measure is possible because Spain’s Covid-19 “epidemiological situation
is enormously stable at the moment,” Darias told a news conference after a weekly
cabinet meeting.
Spain will cease to be the only country in Europe that still requires the use of face masks on public transport.
The measure comes months after other European countries took the same decision, which has been delayed due to the threat of the Covid-19 situation in China and fear of new variants such as ‘kraken’ from the US.
Where else masks will masks not be mandatory any more?
Darias elaborated further, confirming that as well as on public transport, masks will not be required in health establishments such as opticians, auditory and orthopaedic centres, where they had been up until now.
Will they still be required anywhere?
Yes, the government has stated that face masks will still be mandatory in all other health centres, pharmacies and hospitals, as well as in care homes.
You will also need to continue wearing them in dentist offices, physiotherapy centres, blood banks, family planning or fertility clinics and psychology or psychiatric offices.
READ ALSO: Spain announces end of public transport face mask rule
What about on aeroplanes?
Aeroplanes will be counted as public transport and therefore, you will no longer need to wear a mask when flying to or from Spain.
This will bring Spain in line with many other European countries who dropped the mask rule on planes months ago, which airlines have been asking for, for a while.
The corporate director of Iberia Juan Cierco has been very critical of the mandatory masks on flights rule.
The use of masks outdoors ceased to be mandatory almost a year ago, on February 10th, 2022.
Then, two months later on April 20th, the government announced they wouldn’t be required indoors either, except in health centres and on public transport.
The latest figures for Covid-19 in Spain, published on Friday February 3rd, showed that the number of people hospitalised has fallen by 12.1 percent over the last week and by 15.2 percent in the ICU.
The current average incidence of infections in Spain over the last 14 days stood at 50.76 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Covid-19 controls at airports in Spain
Last week, Darias also announced the results of the controls carried out by the Foreign Health Department on travellers coming on direct flights from China.
Controls have been carried out on a total of 1,765 travellers and three people have tested positive for Covid-19, she confirmed.
The three positives were confirmed by PCR and the virus was sequenced, showing that it was the same strain that is currently already dominant in Spain.