Masks indoors will no long be mandatory from next Wednesday. Spain’s Ministry of Health will continue to monitor epidemic indicators with the utmost attention, as an increase in infections could also lead to an increase in hospitalisations and serious cases of covid, said Spain’s Health Minister, Carolina Darias, this Saturday in statements made during her visit to the island, from our provincial capital, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
“We are in a different phase, the current situation has nothing to do with the previous situation. We have seen autonomous communities that, after a specific period and a specific holiday, display an increase in the accumulated incidence but not in hospital occupancy both in conventional beds and in the ICU”, she stressed this while here to preside over the accession act of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to the “Fast-Track Cities Strategy” combatting HIV and stigma of that virus through awareness campaigns.
“We continue to monitor covid, we follow all the indicators that speak of risk with the utmost attention, especially the percentages of hospital beds that are [now] at their lowest in the entire pandemic,” Darias stressed.
The workplace
Regarding regulation of the use of masks in the workplace, the minister reiterated that it will be the occupational risk prevention services of each company that determine in which areas the use of masks will still be mandatory, and in which they will not. In any case, she pointed out that the indications to these professional service providers will be specified in the royal decree on the regulation of masks indoors, that will come into force on April 20, coinciding with its publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
The Minister indicated that the abolition of the mask in certain interior spaces has been decided following instructions from experts in the Ministry and from the Autonomous Communities, and she appealed to individual responsibility from each member of the population. In this sense, she expressed her wish that citizens “continue to make responsible use of masks. A culture of care is fundamental and the exemplary nature of this country has been demonstrated and I think it will continue to be so.”
