Two German politicians are flying to Canada, and there are also journalists on board. You sit close together, without masks – these are still mandatory on commercial flights. The pictures cause a stir.
The federal cabinet wants to approve stricter corona protection requirements with new mask requirements in Germany today. To protect against an autumn wave of corona, it should again be possible for the federal states from October to impose a mask requirement in shops, for example. FFP2 masks should be mandatory on long-distance trains and planes. The planned innovations go back to a draft by Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) at the beginning of August. Parliamentary deliberations follow the cabinet decision.
Against the background of the trip to Canada by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens), the debate about the obligation to wear masks on planes continued. Scholz and Habeck flew on to the last stop of their three-day trip to Canada – on the way from Toronto to Newfoundland there was again no obligation to wear a mask on board the government plane. There was only one recommendation. The mandatory PCR tests before the start of the journey in Berlin on Sunday were at least 50 hours ago at the time of departure.
Scholz refers to “clear rules”
Images of the two heads of government flying to Canada had caused a stir. It showed Habeck and journalists sitting close together without masks. According to a government spokesman, there is no obligation to wear a mask on Air Force flights. All participants of the trip must present a current negative PCR test before departure.
In view of the criticism, Scholz referred to “clear rules” for government flights. At a press conference in Newfoundland, he emphasized that there were clear regulations regarding the readiness to fly. The Chancellor also commented on the cabinet meeting on the Infection Protection Act: He was pleased with the very intensive and very timely preparation of the necessary legislation so that the right decisions could be made in the autumn.
The FDP now wants to negotiate again about easing protective measures on airplanes. “As soon as the cabinet has passed the final version of the Infection Protection Act, we will consult with our coalition partners and check where there is a need for improvement,” said Christian Dürr, FDP parliamentary group leader, to the “Spiegel”. He made a similar statement in the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
As an example, Dürr cited the debate about the obligation to wear masks on airplanes. Against the background of the Air Force flight, he asked: “Shouldn’t there also be test exceptions on commercial flights, for example? And what about European uniformity?”
The general manager of the Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry, Matthias von Randow, said about the design of the mask requirement in aircraft to “Bild”: “We do not consider a tightening of the mask requirement to be proportionate and incomprehensible.” Since she does not exist in any other European country, she is “difficult to place today”.
The managing director of the association referred to a “Bild” report from the previous day, according to which only FFP2 masks should be allowed in the future. So far, according to the Infection Protection Act, air transport can only be used with a mask – in addition to an FFP2 mask, a medical mask is also permitted.
debate about exceptions
Another change to the original draft relates to exceptions to the obligation to wear a mask, for example in restaurants, which the countries should be able to impose in the future. Planned exceptions for newly vaccinated and recovered people were initially planned as mandatory. Now, according to the editorial network Germany (RND), the exemptions for vaccinated and recovered people are to be converted into an optional regulation for the federal states compared to the original plans. A mandatory exception to the mask requirement should therefore only exist if the person has just been tested. Many federal states had criticized the planned exceptions.
According to the draft by Lauterbach and Buschmann, there should also be a mask and test requirement in hospitals and care facilities.
The fuss surrounding the government flight by Scholz and Habeck is heating up the debates about state protection requirements as a whole. The rules in air traffic were already being discussed on Tuesday. FDP faction deputy Alexander Graf Lambsdorff wrote on Twitter that after the pictures of Scholz and Habeck, the mask requirement in “normal” airplanes could not remain. The deputy leader of the Union faction and former Health Minister Jens Spahn said on the program “RTL Direkt” that the rules should be the same: “Either a mask for everyone or no mask for everyone.”
The CEO of the German Hospital Society, Gerald Gaß, called for a clear regulation on the obligation to wear masks: “In the event of high incidences, politicians must decide either to make masks mandatory for everyone indoors and on public transport or to fundamentally replace this protective measure To leave personal responsibility to the people, as is now common in many European countries,” he told the “Rheinische Post”. “From the point of view of the hospitals, there should be a general obligation to wear masks in the event of high incidences. We need comprehensible threshold values for the regulations to come into force.”
The new corona measures are to apply from October 1st. The previous corona provisions in the Infection Protection Act expire before then. By then, the legislative process for the new rules must have been completed.
Source: Stern
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