Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - The Stuttgart Transport Association (VVS) has spoken out in favor of ending the mask requirement in local public transport. "The acceptance of the mask requirement for passengers has decreased somewhat after more than two years of the pandemic. Especially because the mask requirement has fallen in other public life, it is becoming increasingly difficult to enforce it," said VVS spokeswoman Ulrike Weißinger of the "Stuttgarter Zeitung " and the "Stuttgarter Nachrichten". According to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Social Affairs, it does not plan to lift the mask requirement.
Schleswig-Holstein had announced that it might not extend the mask requirement on buses and trains beyond the end of the year. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to stick to the mandatory wearing of protective masks on buses and trains.
According to Weißinger, Germany "currently occupies a special position" with regard to the obligation to wear masks in local public transport. In most countries, it had been overturned months ago. "Now that masks are no longer compulsory indoors, for example in cinemas, theatres, pubs, trade fairs, conferences, supermarkets, on the Wasen, on planes, on occasional buses and in local transport in neighboring countries such as Switzerland and France, the public transport industry for voluntariness", the newspapers quote the spokeswoman. The Verkehrsverbund Stuttgart is the largest association in Baden-Württemberg.
