Wearing face masks in the public will stay mandatory in Spain after the nation's state of emergency gets over on June 21 until a cure or a vaccine for the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 is found, Health Minister Salvador Illa stated on Tuesday.
The Spaniards need to continue wearing face masks indoors and outdoors if they can not guarantee a 1.5-meter distance from the other people as a part of the decree for governing conditions after the lockdown gets lifted, Illa told in a news conference.
Spaniards Will Wear Face Masks Until Coronavirus Cure is Found
The obligation to wear masks will remain until "we definitively defeat the virus, which will be when we have an efficient therapy or an effective vaccine," Illa said. Three weeks ago, Spain made masks mandatory in all public spaces where adequate social distancing cannot be maintained. The rule applies to everybody over the age of six.
Severely hit by the coronavirus epidemic, the country's government imposed one of the world's strictest lockdown in mid March. As the number of new contagions and fatalities has fallen steeply, the government has gradually eased restrictions. Most restrictions on movement will be lifted on June 21 when the state of emergency ends, but the government wants to maintain regulations to prevent new outbreaks of the virus.
(With agency inputs)
