BARCELONA, June 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The obligation to wear masks outdoors in Spain is to be lifted on June 26, with the corresponding decision to be approved at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting next week, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on the sidelines of an event in Barcelona.
“This will be the last weekend that people will have to wear masks outdoors in Spain,” the socialist politician said. He said he was happy to be able to convey this “important message” to his 47 million compatriots.
The strict mask requirement has been in force in Spain since May 2020, and people are only allowed to take off their mouth and nose covering in certain situations, such as at the beach, when swimming, doing sports, in restaurants or cafes.
Recently, however, the voices calling for a relaxation had become louder and louder in the wake of the good development of the coronavirus situation in the country.
Regional governments, business associations and especially hoteliers and other representatives of the travel industry had been calling more and more vigorously for an end to the mandatory wearing of masks outdoors.
“Such restrictions kill people’s desire to go on holiday,” the president of the Spanish Hotel and Lodging Association, Jorge Marichal, for example, had recently complained.
Coronavirus numbers have been declining almost continuously in Spain for months. Most recently, 43 infections per 100,000 inhabitants were recorded nationwide within seven days.
The seven-day incidence rate is currently even below 20 in holiday regions such as the Balearic Islands and in Valencia.
