The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, continues to promote the isolation of corona infected people and the wearing of masks in view of the different regulations in the federal states. The extent to which this is implemented is “ultimately a political decision,” Wieler told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.
Thanks to the masks, the overall number of respiratory diseases remains within limits. “At the moment it is noticeable that more and more people are getting infected with the flu. That’s why I don’t think there will be a pure corona wave in winter, but that a series of respiratory infections will spread in parallel. ”Thanks to vaccines and medication, the starting point in the fight against corona is better than before.
On Monday evening in Magdeburg, the health ministers of the federal states had initially not found any new agreement for further changes to the corona protection requirements. 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 have tested positive.
No uniform line was decided on how to proceed with the mask requirement in buses and trains in local transport. For long-distance trains, this is stipulated by law nationwide until April 7, 2023.
During the deliberations of the health ministers in Magdeburg, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is said to have spoken out in favor of maintaining the isolation rules and the obligation to wear a mask. The dpa news agency reports, citing the spokeswoman for the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Social Affairs on Monday evening after the consultations.
The head of the North Rhine General Practitioners Association, Oliver Funken, sees the time to relax the mask requirement. “The mask requirement should slowly give way and you should rely on it being voluntary,” said Funken of the “Rheinische Post”.
This also makes sense because the mask requirement, for example in local public transport, is not observed everywhere and failure to do so is not punished.
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