No more masks on public transport either next week or the week after

The director of the Emergencies Coordination Centre of the Ministry of Health (CCAES), Fernando Simón, said yesterday (Wednesday) that the end of mandatory use of masks on public transport is just around the corner, “either next week or the week after”.

Until now, the recommendation of the public health committee was to maintain use of them until the end of the season of acute infections, which would be March or April approximately in March, after assessing the impact that the outbreak of infections in China could have after abandoning the Covid zero strategy.

But in recent weeks they have resumed the debate (which is still ongoing) given the stability of the epidemiological situation in Spain, which only had a brief rebound after the Christmas and New Year holidays.

In fact, Simón said that “even though over the last few weeks China has complicated the situation, the withdrawal of face masks is imminent. I think that in a very short term, either next week or the week after, they will be withdrawn.”

However, he also wanted to make it clear that "the message is not that the mask is going to be removed, but that now the population has to act much more responsibly."

“When we have symptoms we should use it, and if we are in a risk or vulnerable group too. We must understand that our health affects that of others in some way, especially when there is an infectious disease involved”, he added.