Spain will make it mandate to wear face masks outdoors once again as part of a package aimed at containing the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mandatory outdoor mask-wearing is to be approved on Thursday at an extraordinary cabinet meeting and take force on Christmas Eve.
Sanchez added there would be numerous exceptions, such as when people are in open spaces with live-in relatives.
With nearly 80% of its population vaccinated and a booster programme gathering pace, Spain was largely spared the rampant wave of infections that led several northern European countries to toughen restrictions in the autumn.
However, the recent arrival of Omicron has sent numbers rocketing, with a record of around 60,000 new infections on Wednesday.
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