The Ministry of Health continues studying the relaxation in the use of masks outdoors. And, although there are still no definite dates, everything suggests that there will soon be a “de-escalation” in the use of one of the symbols of the pandemic.
The question is: Is it the right time to take this step? Five specialists respond.
Protective measures
Epidemiologist Javier del Águila notes that the key to masks is that “in a situation where you do not always know who is infected and who is not, the fact that everyone uses masks is a collective protective measure“. In the short term, he explains, relaxing the use of these protective items will only be possible if all the other preventive measures are kept in place, such as hand-washing, social distancing and the case tracking system. Del Aguila suggests that a good time to relax the use of masks outdoors would be when the incidence is below 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Of course, the health expert argues that “ending the use of masks must be accompanied by an epidemiological study of what happens afterwards to see if, in the end, it would be necessary to reverse the situation”.
We are facing a “good epidemiological situation” in which “we can open the debate on the end of the masks”
Benito Almirante, Head of Infectious Diseases at Vall d’Hebron Hospital, argues that the current “epidemiological situation is a good one” in which “the debate on the end of the use of masks can be opened”. However, the expert argues that, in practice, the relaxation in the use of masks will still take a few weeks. “We are not talking about eliminating their use tomorrow, but that, if all goes well, in a matter of three to five weeks the outlook for beginning this de-escalation will be more favourable,” Almirante explained to this newspaper. The epidemiologist predicts that, if everything continues as it is now, autonomous communities will be able to relax this measure in outdoor areas between mid to late June.
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