Anti-Covid regulations: outdoor mask requirement returns, but not for runners

After the Senate’s yes vote yesterday, Oct. 6, the House also approved new anti-Covid measures dictated by the steady increase in infections. The most important introduction is the requirement to have a face mask with you and to wear it-even outdoors-if in close proximity to other noncohabitants.

There are exclusions, however, and among them are “individuals who are engaging in sports or motor activities.” So with the new changes what changes when you go out running? Basically nothing.

Here is the full text:

obligation to have personal protective equipment with them at all times outside their homes, with the possibility of providing for its mandatory use even outdoors when in the proximity of other non-cohabiting persons, and in any case subject to the anti-contagious protocols provided for specific economic and production activities, as well as the guidelines for the consumption of food and beverages, remaining excluded from the said obligations:
1) Individuals who are engaging in sports or motor activities;
2) children under the age of six;
3) those with pathologies or disabilities incompatible with the use of the mask, as well as those who by interaction with the aforementioned suffer from the same incompatibility.

Of course, among the measures, there remains the requirement of social distancing, a ban on gathering and staying home if you have a fever of more than 37.5°C.

So, to make a long story short, in daily life we always have to go out wearing a mask and are obliged to wear it when we are near other people who are not our cohabitants.

“Uncle’s” advice for running

While there is no specific obligation, my personal advice is to always choose routes that are sparsely traveled, go out alone, and still maintain an abundant distance from other people.

It might be a good idea to go out anyway by bringing a face mask (there are now some made of sport-specific material) and use it when we pass someone. I know it is not mandatory but, after all, it is only a few meters and it is an important form of respect for others. If Emil Zatopek often ran the fartlek in apnea, we can hold the mask for 10 meters and then lower it. No?