Ministers without new resolutions on masks and isolation

Created: 05.12.2022, 19:00

A passerby carries an FFP2 mask in his hand.

© Boris Roessler/dpa/symbol image

For the time being, the health ministers of the federal states have not decided on a new line for further changes to the corona protection requirements.

The heads of department had exchanged views, but there was no uniform procedure, for example about the obligation to wear masks on buses and trains, said a spokeswoman for the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Social Affairs on Monday evening after the consultations.

Magdeburg – Most countries wanted to extend the mask requirement in public transport by the end of the year, some beyond that.

In part, the obligation should become a recommendation.

During the consultation, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, spoke out in favor of maintaining the isolation rules and the obligation to wear a mask, the spokeswoman said.

They expected an increasing number of new infections and would have pointed out the high mortality rate, especially among older people.

The RKI sees no reason to change the previous recommendations for isolation.

In the meantime, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate have lifted the isolation requirement of at least five days for those who tested positive, which the RKI still recommends.

According to the information, no uniform line was decided on how to proceed with the mask requirement in buses and trains in local transport.

Even the transport ministers of the federal states had not recently found a common position on this - some wanted to abolish the obligation by January 1st, others only after the winter.

For long-distance trains, the mask requirement is stipulated by law nationwide until April 7, 2023.

dpa