Corona measures in Germany: countries do not want to implement the hotspot rule

The federal legal basis for corona measures such as a mask requirement or 2G and 3G will expire at the weekend. The federal states can stick to it when they declare hotspot regions. But most don’t plan to.

Despite their own criticism of the nationwide expiry of most corona measures from the coming weekend, more and more federal states are deciding against using opportunities to extend the measures. They justify this, among other things, with a lack of legal certainty.

On Tuesday, the state governments in Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemberg decided to phase out mask requirements in shops, schools or 2G and 3G access rules. So-called hotspot rules for the continuation of these measures are not to be put into effect for the time being.

Hesse had previously announced that it wanted to dispense with a special rule.

Buschmann warns against lawsuits

The background is that from Sunday onwards, the federal states will only be allowed to issue a few general protective rules, for example on masks and tests in facilities such as clinics and nursing homes. However, you can impose further restrictions for regional hotspots, for example with more mask requirements and access rules if the state parliament determines a critical situation there.

On Monday, Baden-Württemberg and several other states failed in their attempt to extend the corona protection measures by a further four weeks at a conference of health ministers.

Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach had encouraged the federal states to make extensive use of this regulation and to declare entire federal states to be hotspots – a step that Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for example, has already taken. On Tuesday, however, Federal Minister of Justice Buschmann warned the federal states against applying the hotspot rule too generously. According to Buschmann, hastily declaring entire countries to be hotspots harbors the high risk of defeats in the event of a legal challenge.

“Not what 16 prime ministers wanted”

According to his own statements, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) also sees no leeway to legally identify the whole of North Rhine-Westphalia as a corona hotspot.

“That’s not what 16 prime ministers wanted,” criticized the chairman of the prime ministers’ conference. The federal government is now also responsible for the further development of the pandemic.

According to Health Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD), Lower Saxony is also currently not eligible for a state-wide hotspot regulation, as is the case in the NDR explained. “For that we would have to prove a serious danger and overload of the health system.”

Behrens criticized that the new Federal Infection Protection Act leaves little room for maneuver for the federal states. “We can only react when the hut is on fire.”

Special session of the state parliament in Thuringia on Thursday

Elsewhere, decisions are still pending. In Thuringia, the red-red-green minority government wants to further extend the existing corona measures. A special session of the state parliament is planned for Thursday. But a majority is uncertain.

From Sunday, according to the Infection Protection Act, which was amended by the traffic light coalition against great resistance from the federal states, mask requirements are only possible to a limited extent, for example in clinics or nursing homes, buses and trains. There may also still be regular tests in schools. The federal states want to continue to use these opportunities for the time being.

Mask requirements or 2G and 3G access rules in shops, schools, cultural and leisure facilities, on the other hand, are no longer possible, unless the respective state parliament determines a particularly critical corona situation for a region (hotspot rule). So far, this is only planned in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg.

In Hamburg, however, after the FDP on Tuesday, the AfD also announced a lawsuit against it if the citizenship declared the city a hotspot on Wednesday. It is wrong to justify a further extension of the mask requirement and other containment measures with an impending overload of the hospitals, since Hamburg has one of the lowest incidences nationwide and a stable situation in the clinics, said AfD State Vice President Krzysztof Walczak.

Criticism: the federal government provokes legal defeats

For days, states and municipalities have been accusing the federal government of provoking legal defeats through ambiguities in the new Infection Protection Act.

The general manager of the Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, reiterated this point of criticism in the “Rheinische Post”: In the new Infection Protection Act, the federal government had “not specified any criteria under which conditions a hotspot regulation can be considered”.

The law stipulates that the state parliaments can declare individual regions to be hotspots – but in terms of time, it is questionable whether the state parliaments could pass regulations for individual districts quickly enough, said Landsberg.

Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann emphasized in Stuttgart that he would have liked to be able to maintain the mask requirement indoors and the access rules. But the federal government has withdrawn the legal basis for this from the federal states with the new Infection Protection Act. “I’m optimistic that it won’t get out of hand, for seasonal reasons.”

Federal Minister of Justice Buschmann pointed out in Tuesday’s “Bild” that “a specific threat to the functioning of the health system” is a criterion to justify a hotspot regulation. He warned the federal states against prematurely making use of this regulation: If there is no danger to the functioning of the health system, “measures before the administrative courts will fail”.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is becoming a hotspot

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) called on the federal states on Monday to make extensive use of the hotspot regulation and to declare entire federal states as hotspots. Lauterbach praised the fact that Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has already taken this step as exemplary. At the same time, he made it clear that the new Infection Protection Act would not be amended again.

The health minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Stefanie Drese (SPD), made it clear that she expects support from the federal government when implementing the regulation in her state. “I expect that we will get support if we go our regional way here,” said Drese im morning magazine. The new infection protection law has been criticized for being unclear, “but now we can either continue to criticize or act on the spot”.

Apart from a few exceptions, according to the new Infection Protection Act, containment measures may only be applied in hotspot regions. The state parliaments have to decide on the classification. There is still a transitional period until April 2nd, during which the federal states can initially continue their current regulations without making hotspot decisions.

Worry about chaos

The president of the social association VdK, Verena Bentele, criticized the traffic light coalition’s corona policy as “negligent”. The association called for a nationwide extension of the mask requirement in shops and the continuation of free quick tests. With the new Infection Protection Act, “chaos is inevitable.”

Criticism also came from the opposition: The health policy spokesman for the Union faction, Tino Sorge (CDU), accused the federal government in the “Augsburger Allgemeine” of letting the corona protection measures expire “without a practicable replacement” despite record incidences. With the new regulation, the traffic light coalition is provoking “a patchwork quilt full of contradictions”.

Seven-day incidence increases slightly to 1703.3

If the federal government had gone according to the original plans, the easing would have come into force around a week and a half ago. However, due to the high number of new infections every day, the protective measures were extended. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the nationwide seven-day incidence is currently 1703.3. Compared to the previous day, it has increased slightly again from 1700.6. In the past 24 hours, 237,352 new infections with the corona virus were reported to the institute. A week ago there were 222,080 infections.

When considering the values, it must be taken into account that individual states do not report data every weekday, and Baden-Württemberg and Brandenburg, for example, do not report data at the weekend. This in turn leads to late registrations on the following days. A comparison of daily values ​​is therefore becoming increasingly difficult. In addition, experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – due to overworked health authorities and because not all infected people have a PCR test done.

In addition to the new infections, the RKI reported 307 deaths in connection with the corona virus within one day. A week ago there were 264 deaths.