This is how the first hours without a mask outdoors have been: "It had been a long time since we had seen the faces of the students"

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"Today I have to play ball at recess and I will be able to do it without a mask."

That's what Manel, a third-year primary school boy from a

, used to say before crossing the center's doors.

Until yesterday, only in physical education class, if it was outdoors, Valencian schoolchildren could remove this protection that has accompanied them perennially since they returned to the classroom last year.

However, the decree has not been so liberating, at least on the first day.

Prudence has prevailed.

"I put it on because I was calmer," a fourth-year student from a center in Paterna told EL MUNDO.

Her teacher confirms that most have done so: "We told them that they could take it off during that time and many parents had also reminded them, but they preferred to put it on."

From the centers the will to recover normality is transmitted, but there is some fear of excessive relaxation when the child population has not yet been vaccinated.

If in the cabbages the masks were present, in the street too

.

"I have to go in and out of places and I prefer to wear it all the time," says Luis, while he unloads drinks for a bar in the Ruzafa neighborhood (Valencia).

In his case it is because of work, in others because of prudence.

María, Carmen and Francisca are taking a walk.

Of the three ladies who, confess, are over 70 years old, two of them wear it "because we must continue to be careful. That it can be removed does not mean that we are obliged," they say.

Carmen is the one who doesn't wear it: "It's just that it's hard for me to breathe and my glasses fog up. But I carry it in my pocket in case I need it."

Those who have not hesitated to take it off are the smokers, who already feel freer.

Catalonia: "I have been able to breathe another air that is not my own"

“I have finally taken it off”, has been the most heard cry in Catalan schools this Thursday, since autonomy has been added to the elimination of the use of masks at recess.

Most of the students have been able to eat breakfast, talk, play and even breathe without having to separate from each other.

.

However, the masks are still inside the classrooms, although many students have taken them off when they leave the centers, just like adults when they eliminate the obligation to wear them outside.

A facial protection that has accompanied them since they returned to school after confinement.

In this way, the de-escalation of restrictions in Catalonia continues, coinciding with the decrease in Covid cases.

Most Barcelonans did not wear them through the streets of the city this Thursday and only the older ones, as a precaution

, still kept them.

Like the many tourists who have filled the center of the Catalan capital in a spring atmosphere due to the temperature.

The forecasts of the Department of Health is that this week the percentage of people with Covid will decrease by 40% compared to previous days, which also normalizes the situation in outpatient clinics.

.

In hospitals there are 2,591 people admitted for coronavirus, 56 less than on Wednesday.

Of them, 388 are in the ICU.

Mortality is also decreasing and in the last week 269 people have died.

The mask on the street is no longer mandatory, except for massive events or crowds that prevent maintaining the safety distance

.

It remains inside the premises, although the novelty as of this midnight is that discos and music bars, which had to close before Christmas, can reopen, although most will do so on the weekend.

In this way, nightlife returns to activity without restrictions on capacity or hours and without having to request the Covid certificate from customers, who must wear a mask, as in all interior spaces.

Regarding the possibility of reducing quarantines, which is currently from seven days, to five, the Generalitat indicated that it is a decision that is studied in the Alert Report of the Ministry of Health and that it must also go through the Interterritorial Council and the Public Health Commission.

However, it is noted that it would be "welcome" in schools.

Regarding the mask in schools,

, since its use can be an obstacle to learning or communication between teachers and students.

In public spaces in Catalonia, the concentration of people to consume food and drinks between 1 and 6 in the morning is not allowed, while there is no time limitation for mobility.

In concerts, cinemas, theaters, auditoriums, tent circuses and similar spaces it is no longer mandatory for the public to be seated and there is no capacity limitation.

Nor in other activities: shops, restaurants, cultural activities, sports facilities and competitions, amusement parks, game rooms, civic centers and religious ceremonies.

In restaurants, tables must be separated by 1.5 meters, but the limit of 10 diners in each of them, which was previously an obligation, is now only a recommendation.

Balearic Islands: "I'm 70 years old and I don't take it off; I'm afraid"

This Thursday is not a working day like others in the Balearic capital, since

.

However, little is noticed in the most central streets of Palma at the height of rush hour.

Many residents of the city continued to use it, at least half of the passers-by who circulated around the triangle formed by the streets Olmos, San Miguel and Las Ramblas at noon.

Especially

added a woman a few meters from him.

The main relief for getting rid of the mask occurred in schools, where there was a massive release of them in the playground.

"It has made me especially excited; it had been a long time since we had seen the faces of the students," explained Ana Álvarez, head of studies at a school in Palma.

According to experts, it will take days for people to lose the habit.

The Balearic Islands have been one of the communities with the most restrictions throughout these months.

Yesterday he announced that as of Saturday he will not require a Covid certificate to enter any establishment.

Andalusia, doubts in schools

In the case of Andalusia,

both in the entrances and exits of the classrooms as well as during recess.

The mixed commission that brings together technicians from the Ministries of Education and Health, which reviews every week the measures imposed in the centers for the control of the pandemic, has finally decided to assume the change promoted by the Government of Pedro Sánchez on the use of masks in public spaces.

In the new instructions sent to the management teams it is specified that "the use of the mask will not be mandatory at the entrances and exits of the educational center or service, in the playgrounds and in the rest of the spaces as long as they are outdoors. free".

The Andalusian Government has been reluctant to eliminate the obligation to wear masks outdoors until the sixth wave of the pandemic has ended.

But finally it has chosen to assume the indications to these effects of the central Executive.

In the last hours, the teachers had expressed their doubts about the application of the change in protocol and the Ministry asked them to wait for the matter to be dealt with in the mixed commission that makes up the Education and Health teams.

Hence, the end of masks at recess has been delayed one day.

In the instructions of the Board there is no express reference to social distance, so it is understood that schoolchildren may do without masks, although this separation is not guaranteed during their outdoor activities.

Basque Country: "I didn't even know that today it is no longer mandatory"

Thousands of Athletic fans took to the streets near the San Mamés field without wearing masks

on the first day that their use in public spaces was no longer mandatory.

The advice to use it in crowds was buried by the followers who came in a 'kalejira' (march with music in Basque) to the soccer field.

The images of thousands of young people without masks before the Copa del Rey match closed a much calmer day in the Basque Country in which citizens were gradually shedding the protection that until yesterday was mandatory.

The exits of the Bilbao Metro, designed by Norman Foster, became early yesterday the first thermometer of the use (or not) of the mask outdoors on the first day in which its obligation was eliminated.

-year-old who had taken advantage of the morning to travel on the underground from Barakaldo to the center of the Villa.

The last to get rid of the masks were the smallest.

Basque schoolchildren went to their schools and ikastolas with their face masks first thing in the morning -a relief for mothers and fathers with the cold in the morning- and they also had to keep them on during breaks because the Basque Government did not rule on their withdrawal until the last minute in the morning.

From this Friday the mask will also disappear in the courtyards of Basque educational centers.

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