Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) announced on Tuesday morning that dMasks are currently still mandatory in essential trade (grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.) and public transport to pause for three months starting on June 1st. Upper Austrians have different opinions as to whether and how sensible it is to lift this measure.
Manuel Engeleder is a teacher in Linz and commutes from St. Georgen im Attergau to the state capital every day. “I see the easing as positive. I spend three hours on public transport every day to get to my workplace in the morning and home in the evening – I have to wear the mask all the time”. The 29-year-old teacher is still worried about the risk of infection, even if he sees the end as a “relief”.
The 70-year-old pensioner Margit Knollmayr is less enthusiastic about the Ministry of Health’s decision: “I don’t think much of the easing”. She justifies her lack of understanding by saying that the mask “protects us all”. She believes that due to the small number of tests, the true rate of infection is much higher than everyone thinks – that makes her “already worried”.
Pharmacies in particular cooperate closely with healthcare companies and, according to the regulation that is still in force, are among the indoor areas in which an FFP2 mask is mandatory. There, too, the mask requirement will fall on June 1st. For Boris Zaborsky, pharmacist from Linz, the end of the mask requirement comes at the right time: “With the current infection numbers, I support an end to the regulation”. Especially in everyday work, wearing an FFP2 mask all the time would have been exhausting for him and his colleagues and would have been a hindrance when communicating with customers. He also says: “Anyone who thinks it is necessary and right can make the decision to wear a mask themselves”.
Pupils are also pleased about the temporary end of the mask requirement. Steven Höpperger, HTL student from Linz, says: “The loosening is particularly pleasant for the summer. For a few weeks now we have not had to put on a mask at school – we do on the train”. For him personally, this regulation made “little sense”. “In any case, I am happy that it will be over at least for the next few months, because at the moment I find the mask unnecessary”.
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Source: Nachrichten
