Many pharmacies in Mallorca don't insist that customers wear face masks. For months, and pharmacies admit this, the rule that masks are mandatory has been unenforceable. While some residents do abide by the rule, others do not. As for visitors, the overwhelming majority will have no idea that there is this rule.
Last Monday, Fernando Simón, the director of the Health Alerts and Emergencies Coordination Centre, said the requirement for masks in pharmacies will "soon" be withdrawn from pharmacies, though he believes that "it would not hurt" to maintain the rule for health centres.
The view of the College of Pharmacists in the Balearics is that "you still have to be careful". "Although the situation is not like that of last year, you have to be careful in pharmacies, because it is the main point where people with suspected contagion go."
In pharmacies themselves, staff aren't so convinced. José Miguel Espallargas, a pharmacy assistant in Palma, says that the mask "was a very necessary measure at the time", but he now believes that it is unnecessary. "Pharmacies were very strict with prevention measures, but now I don't feel that it is needed. The virus has mutated and given rise to much milder forms of contagion."
Gloria Rodríguez from the same pharmacy argues that there is no need. "People who come here leave the pharmacy, take off their masks and go into a supermarket or onto a bus full of people. It doesn't make sense that the only place that masks are required is here."