The diploma, which will be debated and voted on this Friday, provides for a “transitional regime of mandatory use of masks in public spaces”, the need for which will be decided by the Government.

"If the measure appears necessary, adequate and proportional to the prevention, containment or mitigation of epidemiological infection by covid-19, the Government may, through the Resolution of the Council of Ministers declaring a situation of alert, contingency or calamity, determine the obligation the use of masks by people aged over 10 years for access, circulation or permanence in public spaces and streets whenever the physical distance recommended by the health authorities proves to be impractical”, states the diploma.

As for the conditions that determine this need, the bill only mentions that it will be “measured based on data on the evolution of the pandemic, namely based on the increase in the number of infections and on the rate of transmission of the disease”, without quantifying it.

The use of masks in public spaces was no longer mandatory from September and lasted a total of 318 days since the law was initially passed on October 28, 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which was successively renewed by parliament.