On Wednesday April 20th, Pedro Sánchez’s government officially lifted the requirement of wearing a mask in most indoor public spaces in Spain, a symbolic moment for the country as it was the last major Covid-19 restriction in force. 

After 700 days in place, the end of most mandatory mask wearing hasn’t convinced everyone, and opposition to the end of the measure is particularly high in Asturias and Cantabria, two neighbouring regions along Spain’s northern coast.

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Authorities in both territories want to return to compulsory mask wearing in indoor spaces and are encouraging under-60s to get tested for Covid-19.

In the Principality of Asturias, this cautious reasoning is explained by the fact that Covid-19 hospitalisations have been putting more pressure on the health system over the past weeks, and the fortnightly infection rate in over-60s is in the high-risk category (977 cases per 100,000).

According to the Asturian government, one in three people in the region is over 60 and during previous Covid waves the health system has been overburdened with patients in this age group.

Aside from their insistence on keeping masks on indoors (except for in schools), Asturian authorities are looking for ways to maintain quarantine for positive cases – even though the national Health Ministry has scrapped this for asymptomatic and mild cases – as well as requesting a second booster dose for people over 80 and those in care homes, which Madrid is likely to offer. 

Cantabrian president Miguel Ángel Revilla has also asked his citizens to wear a mask where “there are people” as “the virus is still there”. 

Cantabria’s fortnightly infection rate for people over 60 is also high at present (826 cases per 100,000 people) and local health authorities are working on implementing an early detection system to combat another possible coronavirus wave, while acknowledging that so far there has been no obvious spike in infections after the Easter holidays.

The two regional governments have been among the strictest in terms of Covid-19 restrictions throughout the pandemic and their current stance clashes with that of Pedro Sánchez’s administration, which is adamant on Spain entering a new stage of the pandemic where Covid-19 is treated like the flu and the focus is primarily on protecting the most vulnerable.

From a legal standpoint, Cantabria and Asturias’ calls for a return to full indoor mask wearing can only be recommendations for their populations, as mask legislation can solely be implemented on a national government level.

But their wariness for the end of mask wearing is shared by many health experts who see it more as a political decision than one based on scientific fact.

Just as Spain dropped its indoor mask-wearing rules on April 20th, Spanish health authorities warned that a new highly contagious but largely unstudied Covid variant has been detected in the country.

The national Health Ministry hasn’t ruled out toughening mask rules if the Covid situation were to worse in Spain, but for the near future it seems unlikely Madrid will backtrack on its latest decision. 

The ministry headed by Carolina Darias does recommend that those over 60, immunosuppressed people, pregnant women and people in their company continue with the “responsible use” of face masks indoors.

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