The face mask as a protection measure against Covid-19 will no longer be mandatory in outdoor spaces in Spain from Thursday, 10 February.
The Spanish Official State Gazette (BOE) published on Wednesday the new regulation that abolishes the obligation to wear a mask outdoors.
The abolition of the mandatory mask outdoors also affects schoolyards, where it will no longer be mandatory except in cases of events in which a safety distance cannot be kept.
But the face mask is still compulsory in interior spaces where people who do not live together meet. However, the new rules describe three cases in which it will not be mandatory to use it either, even in closed places.
The three exceptions contemplated by the new regulation to the obligation to wear a mask indoors are described below:
Respiratory illness
People who suffer from any type of illness or respiratory difficulty that may be aggravated by the use of the mask or who, due to their disability or dependency, do not have the autonomy to remove the mask, or present behavioral changes that make it unfeasible its use will not have to carry it.
For certain activities
In the event that, due to the very nature of the activities, the use of the mask is incompatible, in accordance with the indications of the health authorities, it will not be mandatory to wear it indoors.
In public interior spaces that are also residences
In interior spaces for public use where people who meet there live, such as institutions for the care of the elderly or disabled, units intended for collective residence of essential workers or other groups that meet similar characteristics, as long as said groups and the workers who perform their functions there have vaccination coverage against SARS-CoV-2 greater than 80% with the complete schedule and the booster dose, accredited by the competent health authority.
This exception does not apply to outside visitors in those places, nor to workers in residential centers for the elderly or disabled. For them, the use of the mask is still compulsory.
At the moment, there is no specific date for lifting the mandatory use of the mask in indoor public spaces in Spain.
