In view of the increasing numbers in winter, the President of the Robert Koch Institute advocates the isolation of corona infected people and wearing a mask. This would not only protect against corona diseases, explains Lothar Wieler.
The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, has advocated further isolating corona infected people and wearing masks. The extent to which the measures are implemented is "ultimately a political decision," he told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". Isolating yourself with corona disease remains important to protect others. "It is just as important that people continue to wear masks, because this also keeps the number of respiratory diseases in check."
Wieler assumes that more people will be infected again in winter. "The virus is seasonal and we agree that the number of cases will increase again in winter." This is also related to the fact that more people are coming together indoors, that fortunately social life has picked up speed again, he told the newspaper. How high the numbers will be is difficult to predict. The RKI President estimates that there will not be a pure corona wave in winter, "but that a number of respiratory infections will spread in parallel".
Most recently there had been a discussion about lifting corona measures such as the obligation to isolate and the obligation to wear a mask on buses and trains. In Bavaria, the mask requirement in local public transport will be abolished on December 10th. This is no longer appropriate due to the current stable infection situation, according to government circles. From December 10th there should only be one recommendation to wear the masks.
However, there is no uniform approach by the federal states. At the conference of health ministers, the ministers exchanged views on changes to the corona requirements, but were unable to reach an agreement. There are different views on the mask requirement and the isolation requirements, said a spokeswoman for the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Health.
