Fight against Covid in Spain: the ban on smoking outdoors is controversial

A terrace near a beach in Barcelona, ​​Spain, July 19, 2020. REUTERS / Nacho Doce

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In Spain, the government has introduced new rules to fight Covid, including the ban on smoking outdoors if the distance of 2 meters cannot be respected. A controversial measure.

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With our correspondent in Barcelona, Elise Gazengel

Lighting a cigarette in the street in Spain is no longer trivial. To fight against Covid, the government has banned smoking outdoors if the distance of 2 meters cannot be respected. The measure aims to limit as much as possible that the Spaniards remove their masks in the street.

In Barcelona, ​​Rocío Lopez, smoker, denounces nonsense while accepting, resigned: “  I'm trying to get used to it, it's hard but I try. Smoking in the street at least I don't do it anymore, just on the terrace now ...  "

But on the terrace also the measure must be respected even between people seated together. A non-smoker, her friend Sara Mondragon points out an inconsistency: “  They allow us to be at the same table without a mask and if someone speaks loudly he can also infect us with his postilions so I don't see how smoking can be worse . She qualifies however: "  It is good on the other hand for people in the street who use the excuse of smoking not to put on their mask  ".

This ban will probably not be the last: the Catalan president threatened Wednesday with more drastic measures if the situation does not improve in the region.

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