Madrid official: Face masks should be worn even at home
Face masks should be worn even when at home, a Madrid regional official said today, despite having no way of enforcing the rule.
Spain has Europe’s strictest rules on face masks, while in Madrid they are mandatory everywhere in public except for when people are outdoors and can keep a safe distance.
In most of the country, they must be worn in public regardless of distance from others.
“We recommend, as a precaution, the wearing of masks in private spaces when there are meetings or gatherings of people who don’t live together,” said Madrid’s regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero.
“We feel it is important since the majority of outbreaks happen in family or friends meetings or celebrations gathering people who don’t live together.”
Madrid was one of the hardest-hit regions in Spain at the peak of the pandemic, but has over the past weeks reported far fewer cases than other areas.
The Canary islands region — which is popular with British and German tourists — is the only other area in Spain where face masks are not mandatory outdoors if people can keep a safe distance.
The comments follow an announcement from Madrid’s regional government earlier today, in which it said it could make face masks compulsory in all situations unless the central government imposed stricter controls on arrivals at the capital’s Barajas airport.
“If the health ministry assumes its responsibilities… we can continue with the measures taken until now,” deputy regional leader Ignacio Aguado said.
Data released on Monday showed the prevalence of coronavirus in Spain has risen three-fold over the last three weeks, as authorities struggle to contain a rash of fresh clusters.
The occurrence of the novel coronavirus has jumped from eight cases per 100,000 inhabitants at the end of June, when the country’s state of emergency ended, to 27 per 100,000 over the weekend.