Easter is approaching, German health minister urges indoor gatherings to wear masks

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 16. As Easter is approaching, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach called on people to wear masks when gathering indoors to reduce the risk of the spread of the new coronavirus.

Lauterbach posted on social media, emphasizing that Germany’s daily increase in confirmed cases and deaths remain high, calling on people to wear masks when gathering indoors, “Especially at Easter, we should not put ourselves or ourselves put others at risk”.

This is April 1, people wear masks on a bus in Berlin, the capital of Germany. Published by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Stefan Zeitz)

At the beginning of this month, Germany lifted most of the new crown epidemic prevention measures, only requiring people to stay in hospitals and nursing facilities and take public transportation. Wear masks when transporting, carry out regular COVID-19 testing in primary and secondary schools and nursing homes, and implement stricter epidemic prevention measures only in “hot spots” with high outbreaks.

Lauterbach announced on the 4th of this month that from May 1st, the mandatory quarantine measures for new crown patients will be lifted, and patients will be “strongly recommended” to self-isolate for 5 days. However, he changed his tune two days later, announcing that he would continue to implement the mandatory quarantine policy, emphasizing that “the new crown is not a cold.”

On March 24, in Berlin, capital of Germany, people wearing masks waited at the platform. Published by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Stefan Zeitz)

According to a recent poll by the public opinion polling company, most Germans still consciously wear masks indoors.

Data released by the German disease control agency Robert Koch Institute on the 15th showed that there were more than 150,000 new confirmed cases of new crowns in Germany the previous day, a slight decrease from the daily increase of more than 170,000 a week ago. . (Chen Lixi)