Karlsruhe (dpa/lsw) – The mask requirement for residents of nursing homes or facilities for the disabled continues to cause criticism and protests. It is incomprehensible that thousands of people are crowded together at folk festivals and are allowed to celebrate without any hygiene regulations, while old and disabled people cannot be in their common rooms without masks, criticized Diakonie Baden on Tuesday. Around 30 employees from diaconal institutions in Baden gathered at a protest in Karlsruhe. Relatives of residents also spoke.
The Diakonie called the mask requirement an impertinence for those affected and also deeply discriminatory. “The state government is called on to follow the example of other countries and to use possible freedom for the benefit of those affected,” it said. The specification is based on the most recent Federal Infection Protection Act. The mask may therefore only be removed in the room.
When asked, the Ministry of Social Affairs was initially unable to say whether it would be legally possible for Baden-Württemberg to make other regulations here. “It’s probably not that easy that the countries could simply order it that way,” said a spokesman. Social Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) is also against the mask requirement. “I can understand your displeasure with this regulation in every respect,” he said in a letter to the institutions concerned. The specification is neither necessary nor compatible with the right to self-determination and social participation.
