Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The mask requirement in nursing homes in North Rhine-Westphalia will no longer apply to all residents. Residents who were not vaccinated against the corona virus would no longer have to wear mouth and nose protection from Saturday (June 4), the NRW Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday. The distance recommendations are also omitted. The easing also applies to integration assistance facilities.
In future, visitors to the facilities will only have to wear medical masks in the entrance areas and corridors. However, you still need recent negative test evidence. "We are on the right track," said NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU). "Therefore we can take responsibility for further opening steps." Summer festivals and community events are now allowed again in nursing homes. The festivals have been "painfully missed" by many residents and their relatives in the last two years of the pandemic, said Laumann.
According to the minister, the rapid tests for visitors are still important "to secure opening steps to a certain extent and to protect the residents of the care facilities." However, the staff is no longer obliged to ask about symptoms such as coughs and colds or to take the temperature of the visitors.
According to the ministry, the decreasing number of infections and the high vaccination rate of employees in the facilities have now allowed the relaxation of unvaccinated residents.
