Spain will lift the requirement of wearing masks on disclosed places as a measure against the COVID-19 to extend the rollback of covid curbs as the virus is reducing slowly in the country.
Health Minister Carolina Darias asserted in an interview with La SER radio station that the cabinet confirms to end the compulsion to wear maks next week.
Mask wearing to disclosed venues was reinstated in late December to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.
Additionally, Darias reiterated that the government observed that the contagion rate and other indicators have been falling for several days; the government believes the COVID-19 situation has subsided.
Spain follows fellow European nations that have begun to lift covid restrictions. Wearing masks in public places is no longer compulsory in Italy and France; the government will release a timetable for a phase-out of covid limits on Wednesday.
Provincial authorities of Northern Aragon and Basque regions of Spain and the Canary Islands have also decided to lift some restrictions on socializing.
Aragon dropped a rule requiring a COVID vaccination or PCR test certificate to access bars and restaurants and scrapped all opening hours and capacity restrictions.
The Basque Country stopped requiring the pass, and the Canary Islands now permit bars and restaurants to ask for it voluntarily.
Catalonia, Spain’s second-largest region, scrapped the COVID pass requirement a week ago.
Over the past two weeks, the COVID-19 contagion rate in Spain has steadily fallen, reaching 2,421 cases per 100,000 people on Thursday, down from almost 3,400 in early January.
Despite the surge in Omicron outbreak cases between November and January, hospital admissions and deaths are far below those seen in earlier pandemic waves.
Spain’s total death toll from the pandemic stands at 94,040 and the number of cases at 10.2 million.
