Status: 08/03/2022 2:14 p.m
The draft for the Infection Protection Act is in place: According to this, a mask requirement should apply nationwide in long-distance transport and in hospitals. The countries can resort to more stringent instruments, but lockdowns are out of the question.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach and Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann have presented a package of corona measures for the fall. The current corona rules in the Infection Protection Act are limited until September 23rd. The two ministers had been struggling for weeks to rewrite the rules, which should apply until April 7, 2023.
Accordingly, from October 1, 2022, a mask requirement will apply nationwide in air transport, long-distance public transport and in hospitals and care facilities – in hospitals and care facilities there will also be a test requirement.
Exceptions to the obligation to provide evidence of testing are provided for newly vaccinated and recovered people, as well as for people who are treated, looked after or cared for in the respective facilities or by the respective service providers.
Additional instruments for countries
The countries can take additional measures if the pandemic situation requires it, such as making masks compulsory indoors. In culture, leisure, sports and gastronomy, however, there must be exceptions for tested, newly vaccinated and recently recovered people.
The federal states can also order tests in certain community facilities and a mask requirement in schools and other training institutions. However, this should only be possible for pupils from the fifth school year.
The countries can enact even stricter measures if there is a risk of the health system or critical infrastructure being overloaded. This includes, for example, a mask requirement indoors and even outside if the minimum distance cannot be maintained, mandatory hygiene concepts and upper limits for participants at events.
Buschmann said: “There should only be restrictions on freedom if they are necessary. Our concept therefore rejects lockdowns and curfews.”
Lauterbach was satisfied with the agreement to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “I believe that the package is very good.” The compromise that has now been found protects “at the same time against overloading due to too many Covid patients and a critical situation due to staff shortages,” emphasized Lauterbach.
Lauterbach warns of many failures
He again warned of a “very difficult” autumn: The Omicron BA.5 variant, which is likely to continue to be predominant, has ignored previous vaccinations and survived infections. “There will be a lot of failures among clinic staff, and at the same time the number of Covid patients in the normal and intensive care units will increase significantly,” said Lauterbach. He fears that important infrastructure and hospitals could be overloaded.
The minister announced that comprehensive wastewater analyzes should be carried out in future to assess the pandemic. “We rely on a combination of incidence, admissions to the clinics and wastewater tests,” Lauterbach told the Funke newspapers.