The German Minister of Health calls for the reintroduction of masks in closed spaces

BERLIN, Oct. 13 (DPA/EP) -

The German Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, has called on the leaders of the 16 states that make up the country to reintroduce the mandatory use of a mask in closed spaces in order to face a growing new wave of coronavirus infections.

Speaking to the ZDF radio station, Lauterbach has asked the state governments - responsible for health policies - to agree to approve the measure in accordance with the provisions of the legislation on restrictions linked to the coronavirus.

"If the states could agree now when is the optimal time to do this, it would be great," said Lauterbach, who is convinced that "the wave that is rising now will not end by itself", with which "we must react" . "We do not want to cause panic", he has nuanced it.

The German Executive will launch a new campaign on Friday to urge the population to protect themselves against the most recent variants of the coronavirus with a newly authorized vaccine.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German public institution of reference for the coronavirus, has raised the national seven-day cumulative incidence rate to 763.8, although this figure only takes into account those infections officially registered with a PCR test, something that many people no longer do.

German health authorities have registered nearly 34.5 million infections since the start of the pandemic, sometimes exceeding the 300,000 daily infections during the wave that hit Europe during the first quarter of 2022.