SPAIN: A man holds up a badge saying 'the health dictatorship is modern Nazism' and a sign calling for the stopping of vaccine passports in Barcelona today
In December, Spain's health authorities opted to implement outdoor masking to bring down the unprecedented number of infections being caused by the omicron variant.
The measure triggered a debate among both the public and experts on whether or not outdoor masking was effective.
"We know that transmission of the virus outdoors is as much as 15 or 20 times lower than indoors... of all the possible measures, this one would have had one of the lowest impacts," Spanish epidemiologist Quique Bassat told the Nius newspaper last week.
"It's like telling people to put on a raincoat to prepare for a hurricane. Seems like a bad joke," Alex Arenas, a physics professor, said.
Even so, masks have become ubiquitous on Spanish streets this winter.
But from Thursday, residents and visitors alike will not need to wear masks outdoors unless in large crowds.
Masks will still remain mandatory indoors, as they have since May 2020.
Spain's Health Ministry also announced that capacity limits for large sporting events will also be increased. With the change, outdoor arenas will be able to fill 85% of seats, up from 75%, and indoor arenas will move from needing to leave half the chairs empty to just 25%.
The changes come as Spain's infection rate remains high, with 2,300 infections per 100,000 people over the last two weeks, but has declined since its peak in mid-January.
In Spain, where 91% of the population older than 12 has been fully vaccinated and around 90% of those older than 50 have received a booster, authorities have floated the idea of treating COVID-19 like other viral infections such as the flu once this wave comes to a more definitive end.
Comment: Notably in Spain, Madrid's defiance in enforcing many of the lockdown restrictions as ordered by central government has, like Sweden, exposed the contrived coronavirus crisis narrative for the deadly, draconian nonsense that it is.
However, whilst some countries are dropping all the restrictions, others are giving some liberties back, but only to the injected, creating an apartheid society in the process, meanwhile a great many others, like France, Germany, Austria, Canada, and Australia continue to enforce some of the harshest measures, and almost all countries have deigned to retain their grip on the 'emergency powers', despite also admitting that the coronavirus is little more than the flu:
- Surprise: British govt to keep emergency powers and continue some lockdown restrictions
- HUGE protests erupt across Europe against Covid vaccine mandates & lockdowns
- Anti-lockdown candidate Ayuso wins big in Madrid elections as Podemos party leader quits politics in defeat
Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Canadian PM Flees Freedom Convoy as Washington Seeks War in Europe