Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) announced “for the first time nationwide uniform rules” during a press conference on a three-month mask break and the further suspension of mandatory vaccination from 1 June. In Vienna, however, nobody seems to know anything about it: Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) had the city crisis team convened. A decision on whether Vienna will also ban face masks in public transport, supermarkets and the like must be taken “soon”.
Both the vaccination obligation and the mask obligation in the so-called essential trade and in public transport will be suspended for three months until the end of August, according to the Minister of Health. The FFP2 mask remains in hospitals and homes. The new regulation will apply again for three months from June 1 – and for the first time would apply “uniform rules across the country”.
Crisis team to evaluate the situation in Vienna
Vienna should have been surprised by this – also in the past with the Corona rules always more careful than the rest of Austria. Mayor Ludwig then tweeted: “After BM Johannes Rauch announced today the end of the mask obligation as of June 1, I instructed the Councilor for Health Peter Hacker to convene the crisis team of the City of Vienna. This is now to evaluate the situation for Vienna.” Based on this, a decision will be made which, according to Ludwig, will be communicated “soon”.
FPÖ already shoots against Vienna
The FPÖ fears that Vienna will remain stricter in the summer: “As with most easing, there is now a real danger that Mayor Ludwig and the City Councilor for Health Hacker will decide different rules for Vienna and the Viennese will wear a mask in public transport and supermarkets in record heat and pharmacies, without any sound scientific justification”, the Viennese FPÖ chairman and councilor Dominik Nepp lamented at the “mask fetishists” Ludwig and Hacker.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
