Covid regulation ends NRW lifts mask requirement for local transport as of February 1
Düsseldorf · In some German states, the mandatory wearing of masks on local public transport has already ended, and other states have announced an end date. Now NRW plans to follow suit. Long-distance public transportation will also see a loosening of restrictions.
The mask requirement on public transport in North Rhine-Westphalia will be lifted on February 1, 2023. A spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Health made the statement to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Friday. He gave reference to the further decrease in the Covid infection situation. This will be consistent with long-distance public transport, as the federal government announced that it will do away with the mask requirement there at the beginning of February.
This means that mandatory masks on buses and trains in NRW's local public transport system will be eliminated more than two and a half years after they were introduced.
"Of course, those who want extra protection can voluntarily wear a mask," the spokesman for the NRW Ministry of Health went on to explain. He added that the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia will decide on further possible adjustments to the corona protection measures, especially the mandatory isolation, "in a very timely manner before the expiration of the Corona Protection Ordinance that is currently in place.”
The NRW Ministry of Health passed an ordinance on December 16 of 2022 extending the provisions of the Corona Protection Ordinance and the Testing and Quarantine Ordinance until January 31 of 2023. Under NRW state law, the requirement to wear a medical mask (surgical mask) on public transport will be in effect until then.
Mask requirement on long-distance public transport ends on February 2
The Federal Government said on Friday that the mask requirement on long-distance public transport (FFP2 mask) was to end on February 2. German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) made the announcement. "The experts who are advising us no longer believe that it will get to the point where we will have a severe winter wave," he said. According to the Infection Protection Act of the federal government, the mask requirement on long-distance public transport was originally to be in effect until April 7.
With the announcement of the end of the mask requirement, North Rhine-Westphalia is following the example of several other German states. The debate gained momentum this week. More German states have announced the end of a mask requirement for their public transport systems. In Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein, the mandatory mask mandate for public transport has already been lifted.
The mask requirement for public transport had been introduced in NRW at the end of April 2020. Just before that, many local authorities had put the state government under pressure with their own decrees or announcements. By covering the mouth and nose, the risk of infecting oneself or others with the coronavirus was to be reduced. Besides surgical masks, homemade cloth masks or scarves and shawls pulled over the face were initially allowed as protection. At the end of January 2021, the mask requirement for public transport became more strict, as medical masks such as surgical or FFP2 masks became mandatory.
(Orig. text: dpa / Translation: Carol Kloeppel)
