Indoor mask mandate to be lifted on April 20

Face masks will no longer be necessary to wear indoors from April 20. 

The Spanish government will approve the measure on April 19, the Tuesday after the Easter holidays, and Spain's health minister, Carolina Darias, has confirmed Spain-wide mandate will be lifted the following day. 

Darias confirmed the dates at a press conference following the Interterritorial Council meeting held on Wednesday. 

The obligation to wear face masks will be maintained in certain settings such as nursing homes, hospitals, and on public transport.

Catalonia's stance

Catalan health authorities sent a letter to the Spanish ministry of health on Tuesday to call for the removal of the obligation to wear face masks indoors. In the letter, they argued that face-coverings should still be worn in certain settings such as public transport and in health centers, but they would like to see the measure be scrapped in general society, especially in schools. 

Health authorities from Catalonia had already asked the Catalan government to remove the indoor face mask mandate in primary school last week, but they would have only considered the proposal if the Spanish Interterritorial Council meeting had rejected the request to lift the mask mandate.

New pandemic protocol

Catalonia recently made the decision to no longer provide daily Covid-19 updates, as they had for two years, but rather only twice a week. 

The new protocol has been decided because there will also no longer be an obligation to be tested for the coronavirus for the general population, and therefore the figures will not be comparable with those registered in the past two years. 

Testing will only be compulsory for people aged 60+, vulnerable people, people working in places where vulnerable people are i.e. health centers and care homes, cases of serious illness, and people returning from countries with new variants.

Close contacts of positive cases will no longer be actively contacted by health authorities. Instead, this will only be done with a process of self-declaration. They will not need to have a Covid test or quarantine.

The decision is part of Catalonia's adaptation to the new strategy to monitor the pandemic approved by the Spanish health ministry and regional governments earlier this week, which included removing quarantines for people with Covid-19 but who only have light symptoms or none at all. The new protocol comes into force next Monday, March 28.

The obligation to stay home and get a test will only apply to vulnerable communities or those sharing spaces with vulnerable people.