Pedro Sánchez announces that from Saturday 26th June it will no longer be compulsory to wear a mask outdoors
The President of the Spanish government has announced this during his speech in the Cercle d'Economia
The elimination of the obligatory use of face masks in outdoor spaces in Spain already has a date: it will be next Saturday 26th June. It was announced by the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, during his intervention in the Cercle d'Economia, in which he has specified that next Thursday they will celebrate an extraordinary council of ministers in which the modification will be proposed. "This will be the last weekend that we will have to wear a mask", Sánchez announced to the businessmen gathered in Barcelona.
In fact, Spain maintained one of the most severe restrictions on the use of the mask, which had already been relaxed in open spaces in other European countries. France was the last country to abolish the obligation to wear it outdoors, except in cases such as mass events. Pending how the conditions are finalized in Spain, Sanchez's announcement on Friday comes after he said on Wednesday that the end of this measure would come "soon". Many communities, including Catalonia, expected the State to take the step already this Tuesday during the Public Health Commission.
The Generalitat, which heard of the announcement in the middle of the Department of Health conference, has reiterated its support for this measure in working sessions with the autonomous communities in recent weeks: "we agree to the removal of masks outdoors as long as safe distances are kept or people stay with their unit of coexistance", said the Secretary of Public Health, Carmen Cabezas.
Cabezas has advanced that the drafts with which the communities and the Spanish government work with indicate that the mandatory mask outside will be abolished as long as a 1.5-metre distance can be kept with people from other cohabitation bubbles. These assumptions, however, are the ones that will have to be discussed next week before this extraordinary council of ministers that has to approve the change. Cabezas has reproached the Spanish government for not having communicated the decision first to one of the technical inter-territorial coordination commissions.