DECISION ON THE END OF THE USE OF THE MASK OUTSIDE WILL BE TAKEN IN THE SECOND WEEK OF MARCH

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

I think this is really being dragged out now, and they should stop the use of the mask altogether, the number of vaccinated is over 90%, so it’s just ridiculous, and should now be made a choice inside and outside. 

Miguel Albuquerque said this morning that the decision on the end of the mandatory use of mask in outdoor space will be taken between the first and second week of March.

“We still have numbers that have to be evaluated by the end of the month, but I think that in the first or second week of March we will make that decision”, stressed the official, guaranteeing that the retreat has nothing to do with Carnival, not least because this event “is cancelled”.

Regarding the school environment, the official said that this is a situation that will still be evaluated by the regional health authorities. “I make the decisions by listening to the experts, although the idea is to stop wearing the mask outdoors in schools, but this may not be at the monent”, he underlined.

The president of the Regional Government also recalled that the severity of this variant “is reduced”, that the number of hospitalizations “has decreased” and that vaccination “is increasing substantially”. Therefore, he continued, “we are going to reach 92/93 percent of vaccination and from there we are in a position to transform this pandemic into an endemic disease”, he added.

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Tobi Hughes

8 Responses

  1. In the two weeks since we stopped wearing masks inside and outside the numbers are still falling. Most people with covid don’t have symptoms and those that do say it’s not as bad as the common cold.

    1. The regional government is just doing this to be different to the national government, which in all probability will stop making it obligatory to wear masks outside. They don’t want to be seen to be in agreement with the PS, who convincingly beat them in the elections last month by 41% to 27%. Only Madeira persists with the PSD, so the tension will continue.

  5. Thank goodness that scientific endeavour has been able to create reasonably effective vaccines in record time, and first world populations are now heavily vaccinated. The continuing high levels of Covid infection are witness to the fact that, like all other vaccines, they are not 100% effective. Luckily the currently dominant variant of the virus, whilst highly transmissible, is less virulent than its predecessors. This leaves us with an interesting paradox.
    On a population level, the fact that the vast majority only experience relatively mild symptoms in excellent news, and leads one to believe (as for example the UK Government does) that the wearing of masks can be abandoned without significant consequence.
    However, this ignores the fact that a significant proportion of the population (whether through age, health conditions, or other factors) remains at risk of severe infection, of longer term debilitating “Long Covid”, or even death. Whilst infection rates are still high is there not a moral responsibility on us all the continue to mitigate the virus’s effect on these people through the simple expedient of mask wearing? I personally do not see much point in doing so outdoors (unless in a particularly crowded, still environment). But to continue with their use indoors, at least for a while yet, would seem both pragmatic and morally correct.

  6. Define “a while yet” because I can see mask wearing lingering on to become a semi permanent expectation. It really does very little to prevent infection as verified by WHO. Most individuals don’t wear the correct masks, don’t wear them properly and/or wear the same mask until it is filthy. It really has become mere virtue signalling to continue to wear masks. The requirement to wear them in or outdoors should now be discontinued.

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