Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Hesse is sticking to the corona mask requirement in public transport. Social Affairs Minister Kai Klose (Greens) said on Thursday in the Hessian state parliament in Wiesbaden that people sometimes come very close together on local buses and trains. Mouth and nose protection offers good precautions against infection with the corona virus, but represents a relatively minor encroachment on people's fundamental rights. There is therefore no reason to change the existing mask requirement in public transport.

The opposition factions of the FDP and AfD, on the other hand, called for an end to the mask requirement on buses and trains in the Hessian local transport system. The state government should rely on the personal responsibility of the citizens. Members of the other parliamentary groups in the Hessian state parliament rejected this demand with clear words and pointed out, for example, that the corona numbers will increase again in the cold season.