Spain to maintain masks on flights and public transport

The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, has ruled out that the elimination of the compulsory use of masks in public transport and on planes, following the European Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Prevention and Disease Control (ECDC) announcing a change in policy recommendations.

This was stated by Darias at a press conference on Wednesday at the end of the Interterritorial Health Council, in which she specified that the recommendations of the ECDC and AESA on the use of masks both in airports and on flights must be aligned with the measures and regulations on its use on public transport.

In this sense, she recalled that the decree approved by the Executive last April establishes that the use of face masks is not mandatory neither on the platforms nor in the airports themselves, but it is on public transport and on flights to, from and inside the country.

In addition, she said that the European organisations have recommended that flight operators maintain their use, before insisting that Spain “very recently” decided to extend the obligation to wear the mask on public transport.

“All the measures have to have a path and therefore we have to walk hand in hand with prudence and proportionality as until now and always with unanimity in the proposals of the experts who advise us and in this case with the practical unanimity of the Interterritorial”, added Darias.