Fernando Simon, director of the Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies, announced this Wednesday that the obligation to wear masks on public transport “will soon be lifted”. According to the statements collected by Herald of Aragon The visible face of the Ministry of Health during the pandemic has ended one of the last measures left by Covid “in the next week or so”.
These statements are in line with those of the Health Minister who, while avoiding setting a date, assured last week that it would be “soon, soon, soon” when asked about the matter. Sources from the department headed by Carolina Darias applied this adjective this Wednesday.
The minister defended the need to analyze the “outlined road map” and the evolution of the situation in China. The outbreak in the Asian giant already involves the resumption of traveler controls at Spanish airports, which Health began in early January and will ease on February 15.
“We are getting close and we have to see how the next times develop to make this decision, but obviously the epidemiological situation is improving, but we have to see how the China issue develops to make a decision,” he said. In an interview on Cadena Ser Canarias last January 19, in which he also claimed that he was “weighing” the possibility of abolishing the mandatory nature of masks in pharmacies.
Simone, who took part in the cycle “The New Social Contract: A Democracy That Unites Us” in Zaragoza, explained that the decision to remove the masks is not “only” hers, but the opinions of the technicians are taken into account. Autonomous Communities and the Ministry itself, through reporting of warnings and preparedness and response plans. That group, which met in December, has yet to meet, but the CCAES director noted that “proposals are already on the table.”
Some voices pointed to the contradiction of maintaining the mandatory nature of masks in public transport, and the right to go without a mask in other closed or poorly ventilated spaces. “If we consider transfer factors, much more time is spent at work than in public transport, especially if it is urban. At the same time, there are places of rest where it is impossible to maintain a safe distance,” said Javier Segura, president of the Madrid Public Health Association, in this report.
This expert influenced another maxim of sanitary measures: if the population notices that they are contradictory or ineffective, they “express their opposition by ceasing to use them.”
However, other voices support the continued wearing of the mask. “To do this in the middle of the winter season, with our low temperatures, intense activity indoors and an increase in waterborne respiratory infections, is really stupid,” epidemiologist Daniel López Acuna believes.
Source: El Diario
