Almost half of Germans want to keep wearing masks to protect themselves from illness after the Coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
Out of about 5,000 people polled by the Civey research institute on behalf of the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper, 44.7 per cent were in favour of continuing to wear masks, while 41.9 per cent said they would prefer to do away with mouth and nose coverings.
The rest were undecided.
Coronavirus containment measures such as mask-wearing, keeping a distance from others and frequent hand-washing saw a significant reduction in other illnesses.
The drop was particularly noticeable in illnesses that are spread by droplets, as Coronavirus is.
In the last year there were only around one-third of the number of norovirus cases than in 2019.
Flu season almost completely disappeared for 2020-2021.
Even in early 2020, the flu season saw an earlier end than usual, which has been attributed to Coronavirus measures.
Age appeared to play a role in whether people want to continue wearing masks post-pandemic, with 54.1 per cent of people over 65 in favour, according to the survey.
Among 18 to 29-year-olds, 50.5 per cent were against continuing to use masks in everyday life.
While among men, 41.2 per cent said yes to wearing masks, while the figure for women was 48.2 per cent.
In contrast, 46.7 per cent of men rejected mask-wearing after the pandemic, while only 37.3 of women were against it.
dpa/NAN
