The improvement in the health situation has allowed this restriction to finally fall was in force from May 20, 2020 and that it was still in force in Spain, one of the few countries that had not withdrawn it.
García, however, kept the mask in the store, as did the majority of people who walked through the shops in the center of the capital.
“I knew you could take it off inside, but since I wasn’t sure, I left it on, and out of habit too,” admits this English teacher, who affirms that she will continue to wear it inside “if there are a lot of people, especially all older.”
But there is also Lucia Ginard, 19, who did not want to wait any longer to enjoy the end of the norm.
“We have to get used to [a la pandemia]otherwise it will never end,” says this 19-year-old university student from Mallorca, who is in Madrid on vacation.
Despite the end of the imposition, social pressure will take time to disappear.
“Before, in a couple of stores I thought I couldn’t go in without a mask (…) because everyone was wearing it,” says this law student, admitting that she was “a little embarrassed” to take it off in environments where everyone wears it. .
According to a survey published this Wednesday by the newspaper El País, carried out the previous two days on a sample of 500 people, almost half of Spaniards (48.5%) feel “little or not at all safe” before the end of the mandatory masks indoors, while more than 54% consider that this is a premature measure.
In the Cuatro Torres office area, the majority of employees left the subway with a mask and did not remove it to enter the large office buildings that give their name to this area in northern Madrid.
“We still have to carry it in common spaces and we are waiting for them to tell us officially if we can move without it,” explains Judith Durfeld, a 37-year-old German who works in a transport company.
The norm is still diffuse in the work environment, since the decree adopted on Tuesday by the left-wing government of Pedro Sánchez, and published this Wednesday by the Official State Gazette, gives companies freedom to maintain the mandatory face mask in its facilities, if deemed necessary for health reasons.
Contrary to what has happened in other countries, the imposition of masks has never aroused great resistance in the country, even when it was imperative to wear them outdoors.
“I like the fact that in Spain, this measure has not been taken under public pressure,” explains this worker about the end of the obligation. “I don’t think people were really demanding it,” she adds.
The imposition of wearing a mask has always been highly respected in Spain, which was one of the few countries that decided to recover its use outdoors just before Christmas, in the face of the advance of the highly contagious omicron variant. Although the imposition was lifted at the beginning of February, many people still carry it on the streets today.
However, before entering the offices where he works, Maximilian Areinamo, a 34-year-old marketing employee, does not hide his relief.
For him, the end of indoor masks “somewhat symbolizes the beginning of the end of the pandemic.”
Source: Ambito
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