Status: 08/14/2021 11:15 a.m.
The teachers’ association has asked the federal states to enforce the mask requirement in schools not just for a few weeks, but for months. Meanwhile, the corona numbers continue to rise – the incidence is 32.7.
The German Teachers’ Association has advocated that masks should be worn in schools for a long time to protect against corona. In the first months of the new school year there must be a comprehensive mask requirement and regular tests by students, said association president Heinz-Peter Meidinger.
He justified this with the fact that younger children have not yet been vaccinated and only a part of the larger ones. “Limiting the mask requirement and testing to the first two weeks of school, as provided in some federal states, falls short in our opinion,” criticized Meidinger. It is not only about controlling the introduction of infections by returnees, but also generally about containing the fourth wave, which should not peak until autumn.
Many countries rely on a mask requirement
School has already started again in Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. The summer holidays also end next Tuesday in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Several countries had announced before the holidays that they would again require masks to be worn in schools at least in the first two weeks as a safety measure because of the returnee.
Meidinger also called for a “comprehensive installation of room air filter systems in all classrooms”. These are also an important additional component for more health protection in ventilated classrooms. There are still a number of federal states without their own funding programs, he criticized. Many school authorities and municipalities were reluctant to procure such systems.
Incidence continues to rise
Meanwhile, the corona numbers in Germany continue to rise. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the seven-day incidence was 32.7 – the previous day the value was 30.1, and a week ago it was 21.2. The health authorities last reported 5644 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. A week ago, the value for Germany was 3206 infections.
The incidence has so far been the basis for many corona restrictions in the pandemic, for example as part of the federal emergency brake that expired at the end of June. In the future, other values such as hospital admissions are to be taken into account to a greater extent. According to the new information, 11 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 24 deaths.
The RKI has counted 3.82 million detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not detected. The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered at 3.68 million. The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 91,864.