On Thursday evening, the Hamburg Senate extended the Corona Containment Ordinance, and the surprise will follow on Friday: At the beginning of February, masks will no longer be compulsory in local public transport. The same applies to the obligation to isolate in the event of a corona infection. Health Senator Schlotzhauer refers to the falling number of infections and the high vaccination rate.
On the first of February, the mask requirement in Hamburg’s local transport will no longer apply – just like the isolation requirement. This was announced by the health authority on Friday.
With the current decision in Hamburg – and in North Rhine-Westphalia – masks are no longer mandatory nationwide in local and long-distance public transport. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had previously announced that the obligation to wear a mask on long-distance trains and buses would also expire prematurely on February 2nd.
Hamburg: No mask requirement in local transport
The announcement comes as a surprise. It was not until Thursday evening that the Hamburg Senate announced that the corona measures would be extended until January 31 and that they would then check whether an adjustment was necessary for the time after that. “In Hamburg, the obligation to isolate as well as the obligation to wear a mask in public transport will initially remain in place,” said Senator for Health Melanie Schlotzhauer (SPD) on Thursday evening. “The protection of vulnerable groups remains important at the moment.”
The FDP state chairman Michael Kruse therefore said on Friday afternoon: “Mayor Tschentscher continues to drive in the endless loop of restrictions and is now being overtaken by his always overly cautious health minister. Now Peter is home alone. It is high time that the red-green Senate finally scrapped all corona restrictions and lifted the mask requirement on buses and trains.”
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Deniz Celik, the health policy spokesman for the left in Hamburg, criticizes the turnaround in corona policy: “In order to protect vulnerable people, but also in view of the tense situation in medical practices and clinics, it would have been right to have the less restrictive obligation to isolate and wear masks to be maintained as planned until the beginning of April – after all, the rate of infection by influenza, corona, RV viruses remains high.”
The Senate would have been upset by the pressure from the other federal states. But one hopes that there will at least be a recommendation for wearing a mask. (mp/dpa)
