Between doubts and celebrations, the Spaniards return to walk without a chinstrap after 13 months

Like every last night of the year, at midnight this Friday, in mid-June, there was a countdown at Puerta del Sol in Madrid. Although this time it was dedicated to revolutionary barbijosDozens of young people shouted from 10 to zero before ripping them off and throwing them in the air.

Because from this Saturday, in Spain it is no longer compulsory to cover your nose and mouth in the street or in outdoor spaces, as long as the distance of one and a half meters can be guaranteed Between people.

The decision, which generates doubts and mistrust In some sectors of Spanish society, it was also celebrated as the end of a sentence in the squares and beaches of cities like Barcelona and Valencia.

The chinstrap that the Spaniards had to wear on public roads in the last 13 months of the pandemic, however, will remain mandatory if there is a crowd – even if you are outside -, in public transport, on the platforms, in recital – if the audience is standing – and, of course, inside.

In nursing homes, the elderly cannot wear chinstrap in open spaces, although those who care for and visit them must.

Spain lifts the mandatory chinstrap on the streets as it has an incidence of 95 detected coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days.

According to the Ministry of Health, in the past few hours, 4,924 new cases of Sars-Cov-2 have been diagnosed and 13 people have died from Covid-19 here.

It already exists nearly 16 million Spaniards with the full vaccination schedule, representing 33.5% of the population. And some 38.8 million people have received the first dose of the promising serum that will immunize them.

Fears and caution

This summer Saturday, with thermals oscillating around 30 degrees throughout Spain, the relaxation of the faces of the chinstrap is a measure celebrated by the youngest and most worries the elderly.

In streets like Preciados, near Gran Vía, or Fuencarral, in central Madrid, you see more covered faces than smiles in the open air.

Seniors, for now, rely on caution. “They kept us locked up at home, they vaccinated us but I’m still scared. I’m not going to take it off when I go shopping, ”explains Maruja, a 76-year-old Madrilenian and a cane.

“Taking off the mask (jugular) right now, I don’t think it will have a big impact on the increase in cases or the incidence of hospitals,” he said. Bugle virologist Estanislao Nistal Villán.

“We are entering the warmer months, when transmission is lower and, despite the fact that there are a lot of people not yet immune, the risk of contagion in open spaces is very low”, adds Nistal Villán, who also teaches microbiology at the Faculty. of Pharmacy at CEU San Pablo University in Madrid.

“Spain has more than 50 percent of the population with at least one dose,” recalls the virologist.

“The risk of not wearing masks in open spaces is that you don’t remember them and enter closed spaces without wearing them. relax, ”he adds.

For Daniel López Acuña, epidemiologist and former director of health action at the World Health Organization, the decision is premature and hasty.

This doctor would not have lifted the obligatory jugular even in the open air “until the incidence is less than 25 per hundred thousand inhabitants and until we have 70 per cent of the people vaccinated”.

“There is no day or magic number. What we need to do is reach the target of 70 percent of the population vaccinated and we will surely reach it by the end of August. The important thing is that we continue to vaccinate, ”explains López Acuña.

Spain thus resembles, with a clear face, the summer as Italy does and as France and the United Kingdom have already done, where the use of the chinstrap in the street has never been obligatory like here, when a decree published in the Official Journal of the State in May of last year, covered the nose and the mouth of the Spaniards for a year and a month.

Israel, the first country to release its people from wearing chinstrap outdoors in April and days ago in closed spaces and homes, has had to back down in the latest move due to the rise in infections. .

Joy and criticism

Gone are the days when volunteers handed out chin straps in Madrid’s main metro stations. However, you should always have a chin strap in your pocket for now.

“I flew mine through the air in the plaza and then when we wanted to enter the bar to continue celebrating, they didn’t let me go because I didn’t have a mask. Fortunately, a friend had one too many and she gave it to me, ”said Pilar, 19.

“The masks give way again to the smile”, were the hopeful words of the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias.

However, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, who is a member of the opposition party – the PP – to the coalition government of Pedro Sánchez, considers the measure confusing.

“Minister Darias says that if you cannot keep your distance from a zebra crossing (pedestrian path) you have to wear a mask, and by zebra crossing we understand any circumstance we may find ourselves in. Now I can be without it. mask, I am outside; I approach, I move away and I take it off. This must be taken more seriously, “said the mayor of Madrid.

“The citizens deserve that the measures are not adopted for a simple political interest”, he added. How are the police now responsible for controlling the use of the mask? How can we do it? “

Madrid. Corresponding

CB