Pedro Sánchez has indicated he expects the indoor mask mandate to be lifted "soon"
The Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, has made a clear statement of his intention to declare obligatory masks in indoor environments "very soon" when his health minister, Caroline Darias, determines it is prudent to do so.
He made this statement to the Federal Committee of the PSOE while they were holding an extraordinary meeting to discuss the events in Ukraine. He spoke of the "formidable response" of the Spanish to the COVID crisis and expressed pride in the "extraordinarily high" number of vaccinated individuals. He concluded that Spain had the "lowest cumulative incidence" of cases in the European Union and that because of this success that "soon, very soon, when the Minister of Health tells us, we are going to remove the mandatory nature of masks inside."
He will be meeting the leaders of the autonomous communities in Zaragoza on Thursday when they will discuss the mask mandate under the discussions on a new public health monitoring framework. With other measures withdrawn the mask stands alone mainly due to the decisions of the autonomous regions.
This might not mean that we can stat burning our face masks just yet. Removing the mandatory requirement could still leave space for autonomous regions to instigate their regional measures.
There is still plenty of discussion about keeping masks in place on public transport. Furthermore, private businesses may well still be within their rights to require face coverings for people who enter their establishments. It is probably to be expected that many people might well choose to continue to wear the face-covering even after such a declaration is made.