This Thursday the so-called ‘new normality law’ has come into force, which requires, among other sections, the use of a mask in outdoor spaces even though a safety distance of 1.5 meters can be maintained. A tightening of the norm that has caused discomfort among the general population, regional governments and companies in the tourism sector for imagining a summer with beaches and swimming pools full of people with face masks. However, everything indicates that this will not be the case.
What changes on the mandatory use of masks dictates the ‘law of the new normality’
The law published on Tuesday in the BOE, called , on urgent prevention, containment and coordination measures to deal with the health crisis caused by COVID19, mostly includes the text of . However, there is an important change regarding the use of face masks.
The people, from the age of six, to wear a mask on public roads, in outdoor spaces and in any closed space for public use or that is open to the public. In other words, the approved wording of the law eliminated the final paragraph of the two letters, a) and b), of section 1 of article 6 of the Royal Decree, in which the use of the mask in public spaces was conditioned to the impossibility of guarantee the maintenance of an interpersonal safety distance of 1.5 meters. Likewise, the new norm has eliminated the reference to the 1.5 meter safety distance in the case of educational centers.
The elimination of this condition has created doubts about whether from now on it will be necessary to wear a face mask in open spaces such as beaches, swimming pools or when carrying out outdoor activities, such as in the mountains. However, the law does not specifically state what happens in these cases, since the
What exceptions does the ‘law of the new normality’ contemplate in the mandatory use of masks
Article six of this law is the one that contemplates the regulation of the use of a mask and includes several exceptions.
1. People with respiratory disease or disability: the obligation will not be required for people who have any type of disease or respiratory difficulty that may be aggravated by the use of the mask or who, due to their disability or dependency, do not have the autonomy to remove the mask, or present behavioral changes that make its use unfeasible.
2. Outdoor sports: the mask will not be required in the case of individual outdoor sports.
3. Other exceptions: it will not be mandatory either in cases of force majeure or a situation of necessity or when, due to the very nature of the activities, the use of the mask is incompatible, in accordance with the indications of the health authorities.
The Government is working on a solution within the norm: Sunbathing, incompatible with the mask?
Given the commotion caused by the tightening of the law, the Ministry of Health has promised, within the framework of the celebration of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System on Wednesday, to work technically to try to develop criteria for the application of the law. Minister Carolina Darias has set herself the goal of “trying to look outside this legal framework” for ways to apply it “in the most harmonized way possible and, above all, in the most contextualized way possible.”
Making a change in the law to, for example, rewrite the exception of 1.5 meters, required another law, which would need a parliamentary procedure, or a royal decree law, which is only approved in the event of extraordinary and urgent need. However, the minister’s words of “trying to look outside this legal framework” suggest that the use of a mask on the beach or in the pool would fit into exception 3: “neither will it be mandatory, nor in cases of force major or situation of need or when, due to the very nature of the activities, the use of the mask is incompatible, in accordance with the indications of the health authorities.
Based on the wording, it will be the Autonomous Communities, such as the health authorities, who can make the decision not to force the use of a mask while sunbathing because they understand that it is incompatible. However, the minister has already stated that she seeks a harmonization of the standard in all territories.
The mask is mandatory in Galicia when running or walking on the beach
Despite the commotion of recent days and the objective of harmonization that Health is seeking, the truth is that during the last months of the state of alarm, the Autonomous Communities have been applying different regulations and obligations in the use of the mask according to the evolution of the pandemic. As a clear example is Galicia, which regulated its use in individual sports or on the beach.
He contemplated that people who were going to carry out an individual sports activity outdoors could stop wearing the mask if the safety distance could be maintained. However, the norm was tightened and the use of the mask during sports practice was forced: “The obligation to wear a mask will be required at all times during the performance of individual sports practice outdoors.”
Regarding the use of masks on the beach or pool, the official newspaper for the month of July establishes that they will be mandatory at accesses, trips and walks. They can only be removed for the bathroom “as long as you remain in a certain space, without moving, and as long as respect for the interpersonal safety distance between all non-cohabiting users can be guaranteed.”
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