The official text does not provide more details on how the capacity of sporting events will be managed because it is limited to simply repealing the article that made reference to the League and the ACB
The Official State Gazette (BOE) publishes this Friday the five pages of the Royal Decree-Law 13/2021 that reforms what is known as the ‘new normality law’ for
end outdoor masks and open stadiums to the public starting next season.
There are no surprises or unexpected nuances.
The official text does not have any ‘small print’ regarding the changes announced by Health to the communities at the Interterritorial Council on Wednesday and at the press conference after the Council of Ministers on Friday. The royal decree, as announced by the Executive, is limited exclusively to retouching two aspects: it reforms article 6, which is in which the situations in which from now on the mask can be dispensed with outdoors; and completely suppresses and without any additional explanation article 15.2, which was that he left in the hands of the Higher Sports Council the application of measures to contain the virus (such as capacity) in the competitions of the Professional Football League and the ACB Basketball League.
The BOE, therefore,
does not clarify more details of how the return to normality will be in the stadiums, an issue that has raised different interpretations among experts and clubs, since article 15.1 of the text that obliges the “competent administrations” is still in force with the “standards of capacity, disinfection, prevention and conditioning” to prevent the spread of the virus and always “ensuring that the necessary measures are adopted to guarantee a minimum interpersonal distance of 1.5 meters, as well as due control to avoid crowds”. This limitation of 1.5 meters is what would condition, according to the interpretations, the capacity of the enclosures, preventing that “progressive” return to normality of which Carolina Darias spoke on Thursday.
Be that as it may, the royal decree insists on the need to suppress that article 15.2, which gave the Higher Sports Council the last word, “once the situation had normalized and professional competitions resumed.”
Sanctions
The BOE, with regard to the end of the masks, does not incorporate absolutely any nuance with respect to what is already known and
maintains intact the sanctioning regime of the “Law of urgent prevention, containment and coordination measures to face the health crisis caused by the covid”, Therefore, the fines for not complying with the new mask regulations will continue to be up to 100 euros.
The use of a mask will remain mandatory in any enclosed space -for public use or that is open to the public-, as well as in any outdoor space in which the safety distance of at least 1.5 meters between people cannot be maintained, “except for groups of cohabitants” .
Likewise, its use will be imperative in large outdoor events, when the attendees are standing or if, while seated, it is not possible to maintain 1.5 meters of distance between people, except for groups of cohabitants.
The mask will remain
mandatory on buses, trains, subways, planes, cable cars, boats (except in private cabins and decks where the distance can be maintained) and in any collective transport of more than 9 people.
The regulations include important new features for the residences of dependents, work spaces for essential workers and prisons. Thus, the mask “will not be required closed spaces for public use that are part of institutions for the care of the elderly or people with functional diversity, as long as those groups and the workers who perform their functions there, have vaccination rates with a full schedule above 80% “, reads the new text. However, external visitors and workers of these centers must wear a mask in any case.
Neither will it be compulsory to have the mouth covered “in the premises intended for the collective residence of essential workers” (fire or medical guard rooms, for example), “as long as said groups and the workers who perform their duties there have vaccination rates higher than 80% (with full schedule).” This exception will not apply either to external visitors or to workers in those centers that are not “essential”, such as cleaning staff.
As for prisons “in which there is mobility of inmates”, the use of masks, both outdoors and in closed spaces, “will be governed by the specific rules determined by the competent prison authority.” In other words, the Ministry of the Interior will have the capacity to regulate the use of protection in prisons, regardless of what the reform approved this Thursday dictates.
.
