Fight against pandemic
Government traffic light agrees on corona measures by mid-March
Due to Corona, the first companies only want to allow people who have been vaccinated, recovered or tested into the office
© Michael Bihlmayer / Picture Alliance
The nationwide state of emergency corona will probably not be extended again by the Bundestag. But that does not mean the end of the protective measures: The likely future traffic light government is planning new legal bases. The details are slowly becoming clearer.
The number of corona infections is increasing significantly, and the number of patients in the clinics is also increasing. Nevertheless, the national corona state of emergency should not be extended again by the Bundestag and replaced by other rules. However, the prospective traffic light coalition emphasizes that the necessary protective measures can still be ordered with their plans. This week the deliberations on the package in the Bundestag begin.
It’s all about this:
The focus is once again on an amendment to the Infection Protection Act. Numerous tough measures, such as the possibility of large-scale closure of schools, shops, bans on cultural or sporting events or exit restrictions, have so far been linked in this law to the existence of a so-called epidemic situation of national scope. The regular extension of this nationwide state of emergency by the Bundestag gave the governments in the federal states the power to order corresponding measures in a simplified way by means of the Corona Ordinance.
What should change:
The nationwide state of emergency should not be extended again and end on November 25th. The prospective government partners SPD, Greens and FDP also want to “switch off” the associated previous catalog of measures and replace it with a smaller, temporary catalog.
Even without declaring an epidemic situation, the federal states are expected to be able to order the following measures by March 19 next year: distance requirements, mask requirements, hygiene requirements for community facilities such as schools or universities, the obligation to submit proof of vaccination, recovery or test (2G or 3G) For example, for events or restaurants and the collection of contact details from visitors and an obligation for companies to draw up hygiene concepts. Comprehensive closings of schools, shops or large-scale bans on cultural or sporting events should no longer be possible.
Extension of further corona measures
As part of the change in the law, the future traffic light coalitionists also want to extend various other measures that were introduced to cushion the corona crisis until March:
Parents should continue to be able to use childhood illness days if their children have to stay at home due to quarantine orders or restricted operation of their school or daycare center. The compensation scheme for employees in the event of loss of earnings if they are sent to quarantine, the option of querying the vaccination status of employees for employers of certain professional groups and simplified access to social benefits such as Hartz IV or child allowance are also to be extended until March. Employers should continue to be obliged to offer their employees tests.
Abolished free testing – and reintroduced
Until October 11th, the federal government had financed the “citizen tests” with sums of billions. With the argument that almost anyone who would like to be vaccinated, the free offer was then discontinued for most of them. According to the Ministry of Health, this has also created incentives for more vaccinations. However, critics had said from the start that the end of the free tests will also worsen the overview of the infection situation because more infections remain undetected. Now the citizen tests are expected to be reactivated. If you know about as many infections as possible and keep the number of unreported cases as low as possible, that gives more security in the medium term, said a spokesman for the executive government.
3G in the workplace
This has already been introduced in neighboring Austria: All employees who cannot rule out contact with other people must be tested, recovered or vaccinated. Employers are obliged to check the rule at least randomly. In Germany it will probably come like this or something like that: “There is a consensus among the SPD, Greens and FDP that we want to drive this forward,” said the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the FDP parliamentary group, Marco Buschmann. The group leader of the Greens, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, spoke out in public for it, as well as for an increased return of employees to the home office.