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Mask mandates in German schools ‘to end in April’

German states agreed on Friday to bring normality back to the country’s schools by ending both mask wearing and mass testing.

Published: 11 March 2022 17:03 CET

Mask mandates in German schools 'to end in April'

A young child in school in Baden-Württemberg, Photo: dpa | Uwe Anspach

The decision to end mask wearing in April and stop mass testing the following month was made at a meeting of state education ministers in Lübeck on Friday.

According to Bild Zeitung, the requirement for children to wear masks in classrooms will be lifted on April 2nd.

Regular testing of children, regardless of whether they have Covid symptoms, has also been part of school life for much of the past two years. That will be phased out in May though, according to the agreement.

Alexander Lorz (CDU), education minister in Hesse, said that it was time that children were given a normal teaching environment once again.

But he warned that “none of us can say what will happen in the autumn”.

The state of Lower Saxony has already pushed ahead with plans to relax mask wearing rules at schools announced in February.

The announcement of abolishing restrictions in schools comes on the same day that federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach warned that Germany remained in a “critical” situation.

Lauterbach said that the pandemic would not be over in the summer time due to the number of Germans who still have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Some three quarters of the population have received two vaccine doses against the disease, while 57 percent have received three doses.

SEE ALSO: Germany in ‘critical’ Covid situation, warns Health Minister

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Germany to repeal last protective measures against Covid-19

The remaining restrictions – or the requirement to wear a mask in surgeries, clinics and nursing homes – are falling away a couple of days after German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) made an announcement that the Covid-19 pandemic is “over.”

“We have successfully managed the pandemic in Germany,” said Lauterbach at a press conference on Wednesday.

In light of low infection numbers and virus variants deemed to be less dangerous, Germany has been steadily peeling away the last of its longstanding measures.

READ ALSO: Germany monitoring new Covid variant closely, says Health Minister

The obligation to wear a mask on public transport was lifted on February 2nd.

During the height of the pandemic between 2020 and 2021, Germany introduced its strictest measures, which saw the closure of public institutions including schools and daycare centres (Kitas).

“The strategy of coping with the crisis had been successful overall,” said Lauterbach, while also admitting: “I don’t believe that the long school closures were entirely necessary.”

Since the first coronavirus cases in Germany were detected in January 2020, there have been over 38 million reported cases of the virus, and 171,272 people who died from or with the virus, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

Voluntary measures

In surgeries and clinics, mask rules can remain in place on a voluntary basis – which some facilities said they would consider based on their individual situations.

“Of course, practices can stipulate a further obligation to wear masks as part of their house rules, and likewise everyone can continue to wear a mask voluntarily,” the head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, told DPA.

But Gassen said it was good there would no longer be an “automatic obligation”, and that individuals could take the responsibility of protecting themselves and others into their own hands.

READ ALSO: Is the pandemic over in Germany?

“Hospitals are used to establishing hygiene measures to protect their patients, even independently of the coronavirus,” the head of the German Hospital Association (DKG), Gerald Gaß, told DPA.

With the end of the last statutory Covid measures, he said, we are entering “a new phase” in dealing with this illness.

“Hospitals will then decide individually according to the respective situation which measures they will take,” he said, for example based on the ages and illnesses of the patients being treated.

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