Status: 03/29/2022 09:07 a.m
The end of most of the corona measures is getting closer – despite the persistently high number of infections. With the countdown to the conditions, criticism is growing that the dreaded patchwork of regulations is returning.
A few days before most of the corona measures in Germany are to be abolished, criticism of the extensive easing is getting louder. Many lack uniform regulations on how protection can be maintained despite the persistently high number of infections.
In the future, the federal states should assess the risk situation themselves and, accordingly, maintain or re-impose stricter requirements in so-called hotspot regions with particularly high numbers of infections. For example, wearing a mask in retail.
Missing criteria for risk assessment
“Unfortunately, the legislature has not set any criteria under which conditions a hotspot regulation can be considered,” criticized the general manager of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, in an interview with the “Rheinische Post”. Whether, for example, the seven-day incidence of new infections or the burden in the hospitals should be decisive for the risk assessment is not clearly stated in the new Infection Protection Act. Landsberg warned that it was questionable whether the state parliaments could enact individual provisions for individual regions, even from a temporal perspective.
For the German Association of Cities, too, the new Infection Protection Act remains “complicated and imprecise”. “That was not a highlight of the traffic light,” said Managing Director Helmut Dedy of the editorial network Germany. Because the problem with the planned hotspot regulation is: “Nobody knows where these hotspots are.”
“Chaos is inevitable”
For the social association VdK, the new regulations mean that “chaos is inevitable”. President Verena Bentele referred to the still high risk for the so-called vulnerable groups from the pandemic: “Many people with a chronic illness, a disability, but also older people are afraid of contracting Corona given the current up to 300,000 new infections per day . Your protection must be our top priority.” That is why the VdK advocates at least maintaining the obligation to wear masks indoors nationwide.
A demand that the CEO of the German Hospital Society, Gerald Gass, also supports. He also fears a lack of acceptance among the population as a result of the threatening patchwork of measures in force: “If there is no agreement within the federal government as to whether an entire federal state can be declared a hotspot, this does not mean that in the end the citizens accept the measures carry along.”
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.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania declares itself a hotspot
According to RKI statistics, no federal state is currently below a seven-day incidence of 1000. It is currently lowest in Berlin. Here the value is currently 1076.5. Four federal states even have a seven-day incidence of more than 2000: Thuringia, Bavaria, Saarland and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
In a nationwide comparison, there are currently the most new infections among 100,000 inhabitants per week at 2280.6. That’s why the state parliament in Schwerin declared the entire federal state a hotspot five days ago. This means that measures such as the obligation to wear masks in indoor public spaces and certain access restrictions will continue to apply until at least April 27th.
Discussion about the so-called hotspot regulation does not stop
Kerstin Dausend, ARD Berlin, Morgenmagazin, March 29, 2022
Lauterbach: Focus on health care burden
Thresholds from when a region is a hotspot are not quantified in the amended Infection Protection Act, which is due to come into force on Sunday. The general requirement is that there is a risk of the clinic capacity being overloaded.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach had tried to outline the criteria even more clearly. Accordingly, the hotspot regulations should be applied if: Clinics could no longer provide emergency care, for example because of too many corona patients or staff shortages, if they had to cancel planned interventions or transfer patients to other institutions and if there were no requirements for a minimum presence of nursing staff could be complied with.
Sharp criticism from the Union
That remains too vague for the Union. The health policy spokesman for the Union faction, Tino Sorge, criticized in the “Augsburger Allgemeine”: “The central terms of the hotspot regulation should have been defined in the law, with clear threshold values and transparent criteria.” Minister of Health Lauterbach and Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann “failed with a bang” to establish reliable statements in the Infection Protection Act.
Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek had also hoped for clearer guidance from the renewed federal-state consultations on Monday. His main point of criticism is also aimed at the subject of wearing masks: “Everyone agreed on the matter: the wearing of masks indoors would actually still make sense at the current time – nationwide.” The fact that this could not be extended despite this is “cannot be surpassed in terms of absurdity”. The federal government argues that a nationwide mask requirement is not possible because there is no risk of the health system being overloaded nationwide.