Spain: smoking banned in public places

Faced with the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic over the summer, Spain is taking a tougher line and now prohibits smoking in public places. Explanations.

The end of cigarette breaks with friends or colleagues

With the Covid-19 virus gathering pace a few weeks before the return to school and work, the Spanish government decided to limit the risk of contagion. That is one of the reasons why it chose to prohibit smokers from consuming their tobacco in public places.

With 3,000 new cases recorded on two consecutive days, the country is seeing a real rebound that needs to be brought under control as quickly as possible. Nightlife is also in the authorities’ sights, accused of being a major source of transmission.

Galicia had set the tone

It was Galicia that first prohibited smoking cigarettes in busy public places. The Canary Islands had done the same. The rule now applies to the whole country, following an express recommendation from the Spanish epidemiology society. The society had voiced its concern about smokers, who tend to gather together and who, if infected without symptoms, spread droplets when exhaling their cigarette smoke. They can potentially infect the rest of the population.

By prohibiting smokers from consuming their tobacco in public places, the authorities expect the virus to be less likely to circulate in the air and to be breathed in by healthy people passing close to a smoker exhaling smoke. So where is it still possible to smoke in Spain? At home, or in outdoor private spaces where it is allowed.

Will France follow this example? For the moment, no such rule applies in the country, not even in the regions where outbreaks continue to grow by the day.