According to Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), the special rules in the workplace that were introduced to protect against corona infection should be lifted earlier than planned. Heil reportedly told Reuters news agency that he would repeal the "Corona Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance" on February 2 by ministerial decree. The German Press Agency also reported.
He also explained that the special hygiene measures had provided important services during the peak phases of the pandemic. Due to the increasing immunity in the population, the number of new cases is falling sharply. Therefore, nationwide uniform guidelines for operational infection protection are no longer necessary. The original regulation was updated in October 2022 and limited to April 7, 2023. According to an announcement by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, the mask requirement in local and long-distance transport will also be lifted on February 2nd.
From the point of view of the German Hospital Society, the statutory mask requirement in clinics, medical practices and care facilities, which was stipulated until April, should now also fall prematurely. "It would be logical to end free tests, mandatory tests and mandatory masks in health facilities on March 1st," said CEO Gerald Gass of the "Rheinische Post". He called it "absolutely right" that in a first step the mask requirement on trains or the local public transport and put there on personal responsibility.
The President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, had also spoken out in the “Welt” against a mask requirement in health facilities. "We no longer need a general, legal mask requirement in medical facilities. Not every facility deals with high-risk patients," he said. However, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach rejects a quick end to the corona mask requirement in the healthcare sector. It is important to protect particularly vulnerable people well.
In the gallery: About every tenth infected person suffers from Long Covid, severe long-term corona consequences. Sometimes the symptoms are diffuse, sometimes they point to clearly identifiable disorders in individual organs.
