The Ministry of Public Health (Central Government) and its equivalents on a regional level, has decided to end obligatory mask use in hospitals & pharmacies.
It was decided on Friday at the Inter-Territorial Health-Board Meeting, and will be formally announced at the next Board of Ministers meeting this coming Friday or even earlier.
This means that it is no longer obligatory but merely ‘recommended’ in hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, residencies for the elderly, etc.
The only places where it will remain in force, logically, is in hospital ICUs in the case of visitors because of the presence of immunocompromised patients. This includes visiting oncological wards, logically,
At the meeting of health ministers, it was the Madrid’s community that caused problems, and not for being against the obligatory use of masks – they wanted it dropped earlier – but because the decision was taken a month after the Municipal Elections and a month before the General Elections. The Madrid Health Minister said that there were still twelve acting health ministers (waiting for the new ones to take up their posts).
Editorial comment: it was always Madrid that caused problems during the Pandemic, because of the regional Prime Minister’s reluctance to both impose movement limitation and to boost medical staff numbers, arguably led to thousands of avoidable deaths.
(News: Spain)