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School children in Baden-Württemberg (without masks, archive picture)
Photo: Felix Kästle / dpa
Baden-Württemberg wants to relax the mask requirement in schools.
If the seven-day incidence in a region is below 35 and there was no corona outbreak at school for two weeks, the mask requirement "in class in all school types" should be eliminated, Health Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) announced.
Even with an incidence of less than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week, the mask requirement in the playgrounds should be dropped.
Lucha promised to relax the mask requirement in other areas - for example outside in public spaces and in open, well-ventilated train stations and bus stops.
Other federal states had already relaxed or withdrawn the mask requirement in class.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, mouth and nose protection no longer has to be worn in the classroom, but in corridors and in the staff room.
Saxony has lifted the mask requirement in schools if the seven-day incidence on site is stable below 35.
Teachers' unions had criticized these easing as premature.
Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) also warned against opening steps too quickly, regardless of the planned easing for schools in his state. It should not be forgotten that the incidence is 20 times higher than it was a year ago. "Folks, don't be cocky, otherwise we'll pay bitterly," he said. One cannot take the risk of a fourth wave. He does not want to relax the mask requirement for visitors to larger sporting events - even if these take place outdoors. "I see that at the European Championships, it doesn't work at all." Lucha also said that people had to continue to be careful.
Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had previously asked the states to review the mask requirement.
You would have to clarify "whether and where a mask requirement is still proportionate if the incidence numbers are low and continue to fall," she told the "Bild am Sonntag".
Hesse's minister of culture, Alexander Lorz (CDU), announced a separate path for schools in the Wiesbaden state parliament: the mask requirement on schoolyards should be lifted on particularly hot summer days.
But that does not mean "that we are already abolishing the requirement to wear a mask in school across the board, and anyone who still wants to wear a mask in the schoolyard can of course do so," said Lorz.
The school management has to decide whether it is hot enough for breaks without masks.
him / dpa
