Outdoors and with healthy real distance, there is no problem to stop wearing the mask. The risky thing is that there is no separation between people, that people want to go indoors without a mask and that this is interpreted as a message that you can stop using it when there are still cases of COVID-19, agree specialists consulted by Political Animal.
On Friday, the Government of Mexico City announced that it is lifting the recommendation to use the mask in open spaces, arguing that indicators show that the pandemic is declining.
The recommendation began to be in force as of this Friday, April 1. The use of face masks in the capital will be maintained in enclosed spaces, for example, public transport, and will also continue for older adults, with chronic diseases or who are suspected cases of COVID-19.
The CDMX thus joined other entities that have raised the use of face masks in open spaces, such as Coahuila, Nuevo León, Quintana Roo and Tamaulipas.
Regarding the lifting of this measure, Alejandro Macías, a specialist in internal medicine and infectology and former commissioner against influenza, says that “given the low incidence of COVID at this time, it can be said that outdoors you can stop wearing a mask, but as long as you maintain a healthy distance.”
That is precisely the point that worries specialists: how it will be done so that real people do not get together and so that it is understood in which open spaces it should be used and in which it should not.
“It is a complicated measure, which can cause confusion, you have to understand that it is for open spaces, where there are not really many people, such as when you walk alone on the sidewalk, for example, or in the park, but it is not a measure for the courtyard of a school or a shopping center or the Alameda on Sunday, “he is not a measure for the courtyard of a school or a shopping center or the Alameda on Sunday, “- explains Mauricio Rodríguez, spokesman for the Commission to Address the Coronavirus Emergency of the UNAM.
In addition, Rodriguez says, people can come from an open space and move into an interior without the mask. “The best thing is to bring it, and so you don’t have to be thinking if here yes and here no, I’m going to go in and I don’t bring it, better to bring it on and that’s it.”
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Alejandro Sánchez, master in Biomedical Sciences, researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology of the UNAM and member of the Mexican Consortium of Genomic Surveillance, points out that there are two important barriers that protect people from contagion: masks and healthy distance.
“If you remove the mask, you take away a very important protection, because the healthy distance is easy to lose. Who is going to control that a healthy distance is really kept in places that are usually very crowded, for example?” he says.
Malaquías López, an epidemiologist and also a member of the COVID Commission of the UNAM, warns that another problem is that people misunderstand the message and believe that it is no longer necessary to wear a mask, when in Mexico there is a good attachment to its use.
What does the WHO say?
On the World Health Organization (WHO) website, there is no mention of the recommendation to lift the use of face masks in public spaces. What is pointed out is that masks are essential to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus and save lives.
“The use of well-fitting masks should be part of a comprehensive ‘Do It All! ‘ strategy, which includes maintaining physical distancing, avoiding closed and crowded environments where there is direct contact between people, ensuring good ventilation of indoor spaces, cleaning your hands regularly and covering yourself when sneezing or coughing with a tissue or the inside of your elbow,” recommends WHO.
In fact, Malaquías López points out that there are still signs of danger on the international horizon. “What has happened in China, with the upswings, despite having more vaccinated populations than mexico, is a powerful signal that should be addressed. Here of course we could have an increase in cases, although not necessarily deaths and hospitalizations, due to the vaccine, but it would be better not to risk.”
Above all, says López, because people in Mexico have already gotten used to wearing masks, there are no protests like in other countries or as much resistance. “What is the urgency then to remove it outdoors and send a confusing message? We don’t win much and we do take risks.”
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Mauricio Rodríguez points out that, given the lifting of the recommendation to use masks in public spaces in some entities, it will have to appeal again to the collective conscience of really using it only when you are in open spaces without many people or better continue using it.
What should be very clear, stresses Alejandro Macías, is that the pandemic is not over yet. “This is not going to end until the incidence of cases is very, very low. For now, you have to wear the mask in open spaces with many people, always indoors, ventilate the spaces and get vaccinated.”
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