Personal responsibility instead of obligation: At the beginning of February, passengers should no longer have to wear corona masks, even on long-distance trains. Overdue, many say – but Minister of Health Lauterbach urges caution.
Long-distance passengers will soon be able to decide for themselves whether or not to wear a mask. On February 2nd, the mask requirement in long-distance trains and buses is to expire prematurely, as Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced.
Because the mask requirement in regional transport is also to end in the last federal states at the beginning of February, citizens will then be able to do without corona protection in all means of transport nationwide. After almost three years of the corona pandemic, another piece of normality is returning to people’s everyday lives.
Lauterbach continues to appeal to personal responsibility
“We must continue to protect the vulnerable groups, keep an eye on the pandemic, but we can take a little more personal responsibility in everyday life,” said the minister. He continues to appeal to the population “to wear a mask voluntarily indoors and also on the trains if you want to protect yourself and others”. Citizens would have to make this decision independently and voluntarily from the beginning of February.
According to the Infection Protection Act, the obligation to wear a mask in long-distance traffic should last until April 7th. Lauterbach can suspend this regulation by statutory order. Recently there had been more and more votes for a corresponding step. Even Deutsche Bahn, otherwise rather reluctant to make public demands on the federal government, had spoken out in favor of an early end of masks on long-distance trains a few days ago.
Passenger Transport Director Michael Peterson was therefore pleased with Lauterbach’s announcement. “In this way we avoid a patchwork quilt with different rules within Germany and between the various modes of transport,” he wrote on the LinkedIn job platform. Nevertheless, many people still feel the need to wear the mask on the trains. It is good that this is now voluntary.
Mask requirement in several federal states already abolished
Several federal states – Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein – have already abolished the obligation to wear masks in regional transport. In all others, it should be eliminated by the beginning of next month at the latest. This means that passengers will no longer have to wear a mask in all modes of transport nationwide from the beginning of February.
In several neighboring EU countries, masks are no longer compulsory in long-distance transport. The obligation has also been lifted in airplanes. The honorary chairman of the Pro Bahn passenger association, Karl-Peter Naumann, said a few days ago that passengers could not be told why they had to carry the filters to the border on the train and could suddenly take them off.
In the past few weeks, the FDP had called for the speedy end of the obligation on long-distance trains and buses to be particularly loud. The FDP ministers were correspondingly positive about the decision of the Minister of Health. “The Corona measures are expiring and self-responsibility in health protection is returning,” emphasized Finance Minister Christian Lindner via Twitter. “People cannot understand why there should be differences between public transport and long-distance or air traffic,” added Transport Minister Volker Wissing.
Buschmann calls for the end of all corona measures
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann went one step further and called for all other corona protection measures to be lifted quickly. In view of the positive development of the pandemic in recent weeks, these are becoming more difficult to justify every day, he told the German Press Agency. “In my opinion, the other protective measures can also be lifted before April 7.”
However, Lauterbach did not go that far. “The protective measures for medical and nursing facilities remain in place,” he emphasized. Vulnerable groups must be further protected. The minister emphasized the positive development of the pandemic in recent weeks: the decline in the number of cases and hospitalizations, the high level of immunity among the population, and no signs of a major winter wave.
Nevertheless, he urged caution in the case of Covid 19 diseases. “The disease is not a disease like any other infectious disease. We don’t know at this point what happens if you get infected repeatedly,” he said. There is also a long-Covid risk that should not be underestimated.
Approval also from medical professionals
But even among doctors, the end of the mask requirement on trains met with approval. “It would simply no longer be possible to have differences,” said the CEO of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gass, of the “Rheinische Post”. Everyone can decide for themselves whether they want to wear a mask. Gass appealed to people to wear a mask if they had symptoms of illness or to stay at home. The general practitioners are also satisfied with the federal government’s decision. The step is understandable, said the deputy head of the German Association of General Practitioners, Nicola Buhlinger-Göpfarth, the editorial network Germany.
Lauterbach made it clear again that he still considers a prescribed isolation for corona infected people to be necessary – also with a view to safety at work. The corresponding recommendation remains in place. Several federal states have already ended the isolation requirement. But it will be some time before the signs of the pandemic completely disappear from everyday public life.
Source: Stern
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