Corona loosening: Which measures will be eliminated from March 20th

The number of infections continues to skyrocket, with one incidence record chasing the next. Nevertheless, far-reaching easing should apply from Sunday. It is not only for the opposition that this comes too early.

Almost 300,000 new infections a day, a nationwide seven-day incidence of more than 1700: Nevertheless, from Sunday, March 20th, a large part of the corona measures should be eliminated. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the prime ministers had already decided that in February. The federal government is thus following the easing course of many European countries.

“Basic rules” should remain, which the Bundestag approved on Friday morning. The Federal Council wants to finally deal with the new Infection Protection Act in a special session on Friday. Concrete decisions for further action in the spring were not made during consultations between Scholz and the country heads on Thursday.

For many countries, however, the easing comes too early – they do not want to support the new Infection Protection Act and want to take advantage of a transitional period until April 2nd. But criticism is not only coming from the federal states – according to surveys, the planned easing is also causing the population to shake their heads.

Mask and test requirements are now the exception

The legislative plans only provide a few general requirements for masks and tests in facilities for vulnerable groups.

There is still a strict obligation to wear masks in facilities for people at risk, including nursing homes, hospitals and medical practices. The obligation to wear an FFP2 or medical mask also remains in place on local public transport, on long-distance trains and on airplanes.

Similarly for tests. In clinics and nursing homes as well as in schools and day-care centers, negative evidence must still be presented.

According to a report, the federal government is also planning to extend the period for free rapid corona tests. The “Business Insider” portal reported that the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Finance are in talks to ensure that the federal government finances the so-called citizen tests for at least four more weeks.

However, there may be further restrictions for regional “hotspots”. The federal states should be able to take additional measures – but only if the state parliament determines “the specific risk of a dynamically spreading infection situation” in a “specific regional authority to be named”. This can be a municipality, a region or – according to the Federal Ministry of Health – an entire federal state.

Home office obligation ends

The previous home office obligation does not apply with the new regulation. “Employers can, however, continue to offer work from home in agreement with the employees if there are no operational reasons to the contrary and this is in the interest of operational protection against infection,” says the regulation. This applies, for example, to work in open-plan offices.

In order to be able to recognize new corona outbreaks in good time, the companies should also check whether a weekly test offer will continue to be made to all employees who are on site during the transitional period. Employers must also continue to provide information about the risks of Covid disease and vaccination options and enable immunizations during working hours.

Many federal states do not want to go along with it

However, most countries want to continue to apply the majority of the conditions – initially until the end of a transition period on April 2nd.

In Bavaria, the cabinet decided on Tuesday that the previous 2G and 3G access rules and mask requirements should also remain in schools or in retail until April 2nd. Baden-Württemberg also wants to use the transition period. Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg also want to make use of the regulation. Berlin and Saarland want to maintain the previous measures until March 31st.



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Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had already announced that the conditions would be maintained. According to the health authorities in Hamburg, the current regulation is to be extended unchanged on Friday. In Lower Saxony, the state government wants to present a transitional regulation in the course of the week, which should apply until April 2nd. According to information from the German Press Agency, North Rhine-Westphalia is also planning to use the possible transitional arrangement until April 2nd.

Relaxation and hotspot rules under sharp criticism

In view of the increasing number of new infection records, the planned easing has been met with fierce criticism from many quarters.

“In response, the government is issuing almost all regulations that could make the incidences manageable,” said left-wing politician Ates Gürpinar. In the case of hotspots, it is impractical for the state government and state parliament to define specific measures for individual districts or independent cities. In the form envisaged by the federal government, it is a “hotspot regulation prevention regulation”.

“It is an absolute first in history that 16 prime ministers of this federal government say in protocol statements that this is not possible,” said CDU health politician Tino Sorge. The coalition has not clarified when exactly a clinic overload is imminent. This is the main criterion envisaged by the traffic light for countries to be able to adopt specific protective measures even for hotspots. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) warned the traffic light government to go it alone. It harms “the health protection of our citizens”.

The medical profession is also dissatisfied with the plans of the traffic light coalition. Shortly before the first reading of the draft law in the Bundestag, the President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, criticized the fact that only examples were given of when the federal states could enact stricter measures. That will “inevitably lead to a nationwide patchwork of different regional regulations. That unsettles the population unnecessarily,” complained Reinhardt in the “Rheinische Post”. However, Reinhardt described it as fundamentally correct to reduce protective measures. In contrast to previous waves of infection, the hospitals are currently not at risk of being overloaded despite the high number of infections.

Majority considers easing to be premature

A little more than half of the citizens in Germany consider the planned relaxation of the corona virus to be premature. This emerges from a survey published on Tuesday by the Forsa Institute for the RTL/ntv trend barometer. According to this, 52 percent of those surveyed said that the discontinuation of most previous measures came too early.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has again defended the planned new regulations. It is a “serious compromise,” said the SPD politician on Friday in the Bundestag at the final consultation.

yks
DPA
AFP

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