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Mandatory mask rule will cost families a fortune

Masks are mandatory from Thursday, May 21. | Jaume Morey

| Majorca-International |

From today, face masks are mandatory in the street where social distancing is not possible, in enclosed spaces and on public transport for everyone over the age of 16 and recommended for children aged 3-5.

In the Balearic Islands there are 88,700 families with two children and another 18,900 have three or more kids, according to the National Statistics Institute, or INE.

The Government is not supplying free masks, so more than 107,000 families will have to fork out between 72 and 115 euros a month for masks.

One surgical mask will set you back 0.96 at a pharmacy and a pack of 10 costs 6 euros at supermarkets, which means a single person will have to pay between 18 and 29 euros a month to comply with the new regulations and at 5 euros each, those who need to wear FFP2 masks will have to pay 150 euros a month.

Anyone with respiratory difficulties or contraindicated for health or disability reasons is exempt from the new face mask ruling.

Masks do not have to be worn when people are drinking, eating food or playing sports, but they must used in the workplace and where 2-metre social distancing is not possible.

There are no restrictions on the type of masks that can be worn, but they should be hygienic, surgical and cover the nose and mouth.

Pharmacies in the Balearic Islands said earlier this week that they are fully stocked.

"There are no supply problems, the situation was normalised after a few complicated weeks,” according to the President of the Official College of Pharmacists, Antoni Real.

Fernando Simón, Director of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts & Emergencies, or CCAES, admitted last Tuesday that one of the reasons people were not told to wear masks in February when the pandemic was spreading in Western countries, was lack of supplies.

“At that time surgical masks were only made in China, which was a big problem in Europe when it came to recommending the use of equipment that was barely available. The level of risk and the measures we would need were not known,” he said.

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