A man in Spain was offboarded from a train by other passengers who were angry that he was not wearing a mask. In a recent video shared by News For All on Twitter, the man can be seen being handled by a bunch of angry passengers.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently said that there is a “strong likelihood” of more virulent and dangerous variants of the coronavirus emerging in the days ahead, which may be more challenging to tackle. At such a time, following Covid-appropriate behaviour such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance has become even more important.
The video shows the passengers, almost all of whom can be seen wearing masks, expressing disapproval of the maskless young man boarding the carriage. At the beginning of the video, a passenger can be seen stopping the man from going further into the train. Soon after, two women push him towards the door as commotion unfolds inside the carriage.
Although the maskless man shows some resistance, he is eventually forced to leave the train after passengers continue to push him and point towards the door. Interestingly, the video shows that when the man is kicked out of the train, he goes to one corner near a bench, and continues to wait for the next train without wearing a mask.
Notably, the Spanish government lifted the mandate to wear masks outdoors from June 26 onwards. The country followed the decision by France, which also ended the compulsory wearing of masks outdoors due to falling Covid-19 infection rates, Reuters reported.
However, as per El Pais report, the governments’ guidelines approve going maskless in outdoor spaces only if a safe distance of 1.5 metres can be maintained. Individuals are required to carry masks, and wear them if there is a crowd. The rules also mandate wearing a face mask when on public transportation such as buses, underground metro, and trains, among others. Individuals can only remain unmasked if they’re able to maintain the 1.5 metres safe distance or travelling alone on a private vehicle.
The video on Twitter has already got more than 260,000 views. Netizens were divided between their opinions on the incident. Under the comments section, while some supported the passengers, others criticised the way the man was treated by them.
Spain’s coronavirus situation has been worrying lately with the European nation’s 14-day cumulative contagion rate rising to 537 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on July 16, Reuters reported citing the country’s health ministry data.
Spain has been seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases since June-end, with the latest 14-day contagion rate being the highest since February this year.
According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, the number of Covid-19 patients has almost doubled in the span of 14 days. The Reuters report stated that the country has recorded 4,100,222 Covid-19 cases, and 81,096 fatalities since the pandemic struck, health ministry data revealed.
