Spaniards were allowed to ditch their face masks for a walk in the park or a trip to the beach on Saturday for the first time in more than a year, but some people were in no rush to dispense with their facial protection against COVID-19.
"I'm surprised because I expected to see many people without masks, but most are still wearing them," said Manuel Mas, 40, a singer, in the centre of the capital, Madrid.
While masks do not have to be worn outdoors under the country's newly relaxed rules, people still have to use them indoors or in crowded outdoor spaces where social distancing is impossible.
Andrea Sosa, 20, a waitress from Madrid, said she would continue to keep her face covered because she had not been vaccinated yet.
"For me it's important to keep wearing the mask," she said as she waited to meet a friend in the city's busy Puerta del Sol square.
Spain's nationwide infection rate as measured over the preceding 14 days was 95 cases per 100,000 of population, down from about 150 cases a month ago, according to Spanish Health Ministry figures on Friday.
Half of the nation's 47 million population have received at least one vaccine dose, the ministry said earlier this week.
Some 3,782,463 coronavirus cases have been confirmed while 80,779 people have died from COVID-19, according to official data.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Esha Gupta, The Only Bollywood Celebrity, Invited To UEFA Euro 2024 Final Inside Malaika Arora's "Far From The Shallow" Spanish Summer UK Covid-19 Inquiry To Issue First Report On Preparedness Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Windows Computers Lead To 'Blue Screen Of Death' Due To CrowdStrike Error In 1st Statement After Outage, CrowdStrike CEO Says... Delhi Hospital Shooting Case: Cops Arrest 21-Year-Old Man, Recover Pistol "Probe China Link To Political Voices That Targeted Adani Group": Mahesh Jethmalani Man Shot, Burnt To Death In Gurugram, Accused On The Run: Cops Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.