Mask Mandates Return in Spain’s Hospitals

Hospitals and health facilities in Spain will enforce mask mandates starting Wednesday, as the European nation deals with a post-holiday surge of COVID-19 and flu cases.

Spain’s Minister of Health Monica Garcia announced the move Monday, calling it “an effective, common sense rule that is supported by scientific evidence and well-received by the general public” according to EuroNews.

Some local authorities have resisted the decision. Officials in Andalucia, an autonomous zone at the southern tip of Spain, have reportedly voted against the move. 

In Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the region’s leading official, wrote that the mandate was  a sign that Garcia was “weak” and claimed the health minister was taking action for the sake of doing so on X.

“It’s an effective, commonsense measure and one that is backed by scientific evidence and that is well received by the public,” Garcia continued at a briefing Monday, responding to backlash to the decision.

More than 4,000 out of every 100,000 Spaniards fell ill with COVID during the final week of 2023. There are anecdotal reports in European media claiming cases have risen even more in the new year. The nation of nearly 50 million residents recorded more than 14 million infections and 100,000 deaths last year.

Spain previously had a mask mandate in hospitals and pharmacies as late as six months ago—one of the last European nations to keep them in place after last winter’s surge.

"One thing we know will limit epidemics and protect vulnerable people is the mask," Garcia told a local news channel this week, according to a Reuters report.