Wearing facemasks indoors and outdoors is now optional in Bahrain

Dubai: Wearing masks both indoors and outdoors is no longer mandatory in Bahrain but people are being advised to wear them when coming in close contact with older people and those with chronic diseases, local media reported.

The National Taskforce for Combatting the Coronavirus has also suspended the four-tier, traffic light-style mechanism used to monitor the spread of the COVID-19.

The decision comes as part of a series of measures taken by Bahrain to ease COVID-19 restrictions. However, the new rule does not apply to workers at health facilities, who have to continue wearing masks.

“Based on the latest developments and data related to the coronavirus, it has been decided to suspend the traffic-light mechanism with effect from Monday and to reactivate it whenever the need arises,” the task force said in a statement yesterday.

Bahrain adopted the four-tier traffic light mechanism on July 1 last year to assess COVID-19 spread in the kingdom and accordingly determine what facilities and services could be made available to the public.

The four levels – green, yellow, orange and red – were initially based on the average percentage of positive cases out of daily COVID-19 tests. Subsequently, in November last year, the task force updated the system to be based on a rolling average of positive cases in intensive care.