Hamburg is expanding the mask requirement on a large scale - and is particularly critical of one point.
Virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit also has doubts.
Hamburg - How is the current corona situation to be assessed?
The number of cases is still not comparable with those from December, but has not decreased recently.
At the same time, the proportion of virus mutations is increasing, which is why some experts fear a third wave of infections.
To prevent this, the city of Hamburg has now announced that it will tighten the measures.
Corona: Hamburg tightened the mask requirement - mouth and nose protection now also when jogging
Above all, the mask requirement is to be expanded.
For example, a mask should be worn from Saturday in highly frequented places, i.e. everywhere where the minimum distance cannot be maintained.
"There should be a mask requirement for adults on playgrounds," Senate spokesman Marcel Schweitzer announced.
In addition, masks should also be worn in tourist places, i.e. on the Elbe, the Landungsbrücken, in the city park and on the Alster at any time, including when jogging - a Europe-wide novelty.
Some people from Hamburg were promptly disgusted about this decision.
Die
Zeit
reported that the expanded mask requirement was the “number one scold topic in town”.
Many joggers could not understand why they have to wear mouth and nose protection even when walking or jogging alone.
Especially since the number of infections in the Hanseatic city is not disproportionately high.
Hamburg has a seven-day incidence of 64 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which roughly corresponds to the national average of 62 (as of February 25).
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The tightening of the mask requirement is also a consequence of the past weekend, when people like here on the Outer Alster without masks and the necessary distance would have come.
© Chris Emil Janssen / imago-images
Corona in Hamburg: Despite the low risk of infection when jogging - mask requirement comes
In addition, the risk of infection in the fresh air is much lower than in closed rooms.
Some studies have shown this so far.
The current tenor of science: Outdoor infections are extremely rare.
A Chinese study, for example, looked at 7,000 infections - only one of them took place in the open air.
The Robert Koch Institute explains in this regard: "If the minimum distance is maintained at the same time, the probability of transmission outdoors due to the movement of air is very low."
It is therefore crucial whether the minimum distance can be maintained.
In principle, it can be assumed that joggers in a metropolis such as Hamburg will encounter many people, but the contact times are extremely short.
As a result, only a few potential virus particles are encountered.
As the Austrian scientist Andreas Bergthaler
explained
to
merkur.de
, a person has to inhale a little more than 1000 corona particles on average to become infected with Covid-19.
Corona in Hamburg: Virologist Schmidt-Chanasit irritated by new rule: "You could have saved yourself"
So why does the mask requirement also apply to joggers?
It is possible that the special breathing that plays a role in running, which occurs through the mouth and not through the nose (especially during greater exertion).
As a result, clouds of breath could form more easily, as the virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit explains to the
time
: "You are pulling a cloud of exhaled air behind you, in theory there could also be water droplets that you have just coughed up in the flag." Then again the corresponding distance.
Because "the risk of infection would then arise primarily for other runners who run very close behind you."
All in all, Schmidt-Chanasit, virologist at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, rates the new regulation critically: “But the question is always how likely something like this is to justify such a measure.
In my opinion you could have saved yourself that with the joggers. "
(As)