Madrid Rules Out Obligatory Masks “For Now”

Despite the recent spike in Madrid of Covid-19 cases with 28 presently active in the Communidad and the first reported death this week the regional premier Isabel Díaz Ayuso has ruled out the obligatory wearing of masks ” for the moment”.  The PP ( Partido Popular) leader pointed out that the wearing of masks is obligatory in all indoor public places as well as outdoor ones where social distancing of less than 1.5 metres apart cannot be maintained.

The central government has also denied any plans to introduce national measures . Powers to deal with local outbreaks were re-devolved with the end of the state of emergency on June 21st.

However the number of regions and communidades introducing the compulsory wearing of face masks is growing with Andalucia the latest to join Aragon, Asturias, Cantabria, Navarre, La Rioja, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Extremadura, and Murcia in introducing measures.

Since the end of the lockdown there have been significant new outbreaks of Covid-19 which include a children´s summer camp in Soria with 20 children and monitors in isolation as of today.

However more serious outbreaks include the still lockdowned city of Lleida in Catalunia, whose 160,000 residents are unable to leave and subject to stay at home orders whilst in the Aragonese cities of  Zaragoza and Huesca the authorities have had to move back to Stage 2 provisions of the previous national lockdown rules in order to control a significant in the number of new cases reported.  In Zaragoza there are 803 actives cases and in Huesca 369.

In addition Galicia has 165 in Lugo and Andalucia has been wrestling with 115 cases in Malaga.

To date the Communidad of Madrid has reported 72,168 Covid 19 cases with 8439 deaths out of a Spain total of 303,033 registered cases and 28,406 fatalities.

 

 

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