Baden-Württemberg has confirmed that it will relax the obligation to wear masks in schools.

The relaxations will only apply in districts where the seven-day incidence of infection is below 35 cases per 100,000 and there has been no outbreak at the school for two weeks. If that is the case, masks will no longer be required “in classes in all types of schools,” state health minister Manne Lucha said in Stuttgart on Tuesday.

The new rules will come into effect at the end of next week.

Lucha raised the possibility of relaxing the mask-wearing rules in other areas, such as outside in public spaces, in well-ventilated train stations and at bus stops but stopped short of making a specific commitment.

State leader Winfried Kretschmann suggested that the south-western state would move slowly on ending mask-wearing rules. Warning that ending the rules too quickly could end in a fourth wave of infections, he said: “Let’s not be cocky, otherwise we will pay bitterly.”

The southern state of Bavaria has no immediate plans to relax its rules on masks. “I advise restraint here,” said state leader Markus Söder on Monday in Munich. 

Arguing that “premature relaxations have proven to be a mistake in the past,” Söder said “we shouldn’t always disregard everything when the skies clear up.”

Nonetheless, in the state capital of Munich, the requirement to wear masks in the inner city was ended on June 9th.

Berlin has decided to end some of its mask-wearing rules. In the capital, masks will no longer have to be worn on the pavements of shopping streets and in busy squares, as has been mandatory since late last year. Masks still have to be worn in outdoor areas where social distancing isn’t possible.

Masks will also no longer be required outdoors at the zoo, Berlin’s Senate decided on Tuesday. 

But there will be no change to the rules for buses and trains: FFP2 masks will continue to be a requirement on public transport.

The rules in the capital still have to be confirmed but are set to change early next week.

In view of low infection rates in the north of the country, the Hamburg senate has loosened its mask rules. Outdoor mask wearing will now only be required on the weekend in crowded areas.

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The port city will keep hold of its mask rules at weekly markets and indoors as well as on public transport. 

In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, masks will no longer be required outdoors as of next week. The rule change was confirmed by state leader Manuela Schwesig on Tuesday, who also said that tourists would now only need to present a negative test upon arrival in the state, which is a popular summer vacation destination.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the state government has relaxed the rules on wearing masks in public transport. From now on a medical mask will suffice where once an FFP2 mask was necessary. Germany’s most populous state has also ended the requirement for children to wear masks inside the classroom.

As of next Monday masks will no longer be required in classrooms in any school in Rhineland-Palatinate. State education minister Stefanie Hubig confirmed the move to DPA on Tuesday.

Hubig said though that masks would have to be worn on the way to the classroom. Meanwhile, the new rule is only valid as long as the seven-day incidence of infection remains below a value of 35, she added.