Masks will no longer be mandatory outdoors in Spain

The Government of Spain will sign next Tuesday a Decree that will end the mandatory use of the mask outdoors, after it was imposed again on December 24th, when the number of new infections began to rise again due to the new Omicron variant.

After its publication in the BOE, on Wednesday, the measure will be in force from Thursday, February 10th.

Currently, masks are mandatory in all public places since Christmas Eve, in closed or open spaces, except on beaches or in rural settings, independent of whether the safety distance is maintained.

Yesterday, on Thursday, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, announced that the mask will soon no longer be mandatory in outdoor spaces, although she did not want to specify since when. Today, the Minister has announced at Cadena SER that the matter of mandatory masks outdoors in Spain will be discussed on Monday within the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, when the decree that made it mandatory will be removed.

This announcement comes as the number of new cases in Spain is starting to decrease and other indicators are also improving, so it would make sense that some of the restrictions are eased as well.

Masks will still continue to be mandatory indoors, a measure that has been in place since the spring of 2020 and at the moment there's no talk about removing this rule.