In Berlin and Brandenburg, the obligation to wear masks on local buses and trains could be lifted in mid-February – both states are proposing this. The Brandenburg cabinet agreed on Tuesday that the Corona regulation would probably be extended next Tuesday (January 10) and set a date for the end of the mask requirement in local public transport, said government spokesman Florian Engels on Tuesday in Potsdam on request.
“As Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) has repeatedly requested, this date should be coordinated with as many countries as possible,” said Engels. “After preliminary talks with the Berlin Senate Chancellery, mid-February is preferred.”
The Brandenburg State Chancellery will now turn to the other neighboring states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony and Lower Saxony with the proposal. The Ministry of Health is now developing a draft, which will then be coordinated between the departments.
The Senate will discuss an orderly phasing out of the mask requirement in public transport in mid-February in close coordination with Brandenburg.
Hans-Christoph Keller, spokesman for the Senate Department for Health
Berlin’s Senate spokeswoman Lisa Frerichs confirmed the preliminary talks with the neighboring country. The plan is to initially extend the current infection protection ordinance until mid-February – but not after that. The spokesman for the Senate Department for Health, Hans-Christoph Keller, explained that on January 10, the Senate would “discuss an orderly expiry of the mask requirement in public transport by mid-February in close coordination with Brandenburg”. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) had repeatedly spoken out in favor of a nationwide solution that was as uniform as possible and coordination with Brandenburg.
At the end of last year, Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Woidke also called for a nationwide regulation for a possible end to the corona protection measures and warned against going it alone. The virologist Christian Drosten had previously said in an interview with the “Tagesspiegel”, among other things, that in his opinion the pandemic was over and was becoming an endemic. This triggered a debate about an end to the corona protection measures.
Brandenburg FDP criticizes renewed extension
The current Brandenburg Corona Ordinance with an FFP2 mask requirement in public buses and trains in local transport is still valid until January 11th. Masks are also required when visiting community accommodation for refugees and homeless people in closed rooms. The corona isolation obligation still applies in Brandenburg.
The FDP in Brandenburg criticized the planned renewed extension of the Corona regulation. The state government is missing out on finally changing its pandemic policy at the turn of the year, explained state chairman Zyon Braun. Brandenburg must end all measures immediately and return to normal.
Corona masks are mandatory nationwide for passengers in long-distance public transport and visitors to hospitals and nursing homes as well as doctor’s offices until April 7th. The rules could also be overturned earlier.
In three federal states, the mask is no longer mandatory in local public transport: in Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt and also in Schleswig-Holstein since New Year’s Day. (dpa)
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