Reacción a "Reaction to the possible withdrawal of mandatory face masks on public transport next week"

Spain has a highly vaccinated and highly infected population, and covid-19 incidence is expected to remain stable in the coming months, showing some level of transmission (which could increase if new variants displace the current ones) but with limited impact on hospitalisation and ICUs. In fact, after last summer's surge, all covid monitoring parameters are very stable, and have not been particularly affected by interactions at Christmas and New Year's Eve (up to 6 million people spent New Year's Eve in entertainment venues). 

In this context, and for several weeks now, it was not expected that the use of masks exclusively on public transport would have a relevant impact on transmission or hospitalisation, so it was reasonable to withdraw this restriction, which had already been done in most European countries.   

Given that the Ministry created great concern with the outbreak in China, including for some control measures at airports, it was also expected that they would show some consistency by prolonging the mandatory use of facemasks (it would have made little sense to take contradictory measures at the same time). It is to be expected that the announcement of the withdrawal of this measure in Germany, the only major EU country that still maintained it, left Spain in an awkward situation. Especially because a country with a high tourist industry has no interest in conveying the impression that the situation in Spain requires measures that do not exist in the rest of Europe. 

For the rest, the use of masks in health centres should be maintained, and also the recommendation that people with respiratory symptoms wear a mask when they are with other people (especially when they are with elderly people or with underlying illnesses).