Covid: facemask-wearing to be ditched in public transit before the summer?

Published by Graziella de Sortiraparis, Caroline de Sortiraparis, Rizhlaine de Sortiraparis · Published on May 11th, 2022 at 11:14 a.m.
Facemasks are no longer compulsory indoors since March 14, 2022, excluding in public transit. Although Covid-19 contamination data keeps on declining, facemask-wearing could be ditch in trains and metros before the summer.

For over two years, the French using public transit shall not forget their facemasks in addition to their travel card. As this as grown into a habit, and as facemask-wearing is no longer compulsory indoors since March 14, 2022, it is then still required in public transit, namely metros, trains, buses and tramways. If no date has been given so far, the government could announce the end of compulsory facemask-wearing before the end of summer.

Many EU countries have made their health rules more flexible, as the Covid-19 epidemic has been clearly withdrawing since March. In England, Ireland and Nordic countries, facemasks are no longer compulsory in public transportation for weeks, like in Switzerland. The Île-de-France transport promoter authority is waiting for instructions from the government likely to be applied on a national scale.

In April, Emmanuel Macron told Brut it was “reasonable to consider lifting compulsory facemask-wearing in public transportation by the summer”, if contaminations were dramatically dropping. Over the past weeks, data have been declining, so, it could mean regulations could be made more flexible soon, as the summer is just around the corner. As a matter of fact, when temperatures in public transit rise, it is harder to bear the mask, some users claim, as it starts to annoy some more.

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