The Berlin Senator for Health welcomes the fact that the mask requirement in long-distance public transport is to be lifted on February 2nd. “This decision by the Federal Minister of Health comes as a surprise, but at the right time,” Senator Ulrike Gote (Greens) told the Tagesspiegel. “The federal government is following countries that have coordinated well, such as Berlin and Brandenburg.”
On February 2nd, in many federal states – including Berlin – the mask requirement on buses and trains will end. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced on Friday in Berlin that this should also apply to long-distance public transport. The federal government can suspend the existing measure by statutory order.
This is the right way for the citizens, said Gote: “You now have clarity and reliability.” Lauterbach justified his step by saying that the situation in the corona pandemic had stabilized. The much-discussed wastewater monitoring often shows falling values, and the number of hospitalizations due to Sars-Cov-2 infections is declining. The situation in the clinics is tense but manageable.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) had said that the end of the corona measures had to come “as soon as possible”. He also referred to the stress for the scarce railway staff to control the measures. The top of Deutsche Bahn also recently spoke out in favor of an early end to the mask requirement.
The Berlin Senate and the Brandenburg state government recently decided to end the mask requirement on buses and trains on February 2nd. The regulation has already been abolished in Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein. After February 2nd, the mask requirement still applies in clinics, nursing homes and practices.
To home page
