Corona policy
Doctors’ representatives towards the end of the mask requirement indoors
As of March 20th, all far-reaching corona protection measures are to be dropped. Photo: Daniel Karmann/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Further corona loosening should come into force on Monday in a week’s time. The government’s plans to continue to meet with criticism. The importance of a specific measure is particularly emphasized.
The President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), Gernot Marx, has warned against an end to the mask requirement in indoor public spaces in view of the increasing number of corona infections.
“Wearing masks is a proven and simple protective measure. It would be a mistake to give up this means without need,” said Marx to the newspapers of the Funke media group. Masks can be used to effectively protect yourself and others against infection. “The federal states should therefore in any case continue to wear masks in public interiors after March 20.”
A draft submitted by the federal government to amend the Infection Protection Act in the Corona Pandemic is intended to regulate what the federal states can further prescribe if, as agreed, all far-reaching protective measures are dropped by March 20th. Mask requirements in nursing homes, clinics and local public transport as well as test requirements in nursing homes and schools should still be possible. The mask requirement on long-distance trains and planes should also remain nationwide.
Stricter conditions should be able to be imposed in places where the corona situation is coming to a head: mask requirements, distance requirements, hygiene concepts and proof of vaccination, recovery or tests (3G/2G/2G plus) – but only if the respective state parliament deals with it beforehand Has.
Criticism from the federal states
Several federal states had criticized the draft. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) spoke of an emerging patchwork of rules. The Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: “Should the law come about, we will maneuver into a political inability to act in a very critical phase of the pandemic.” The basic protection measures are insufficient and due to technical errors in the draft law, it is not possible for the federal states to find their own regulations in a timely manner.
Holetschek told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”: “The federal government really needs to make improvements and should extend the measures nationwide by another two or three months and not shift the responsibility to the federal states while the infection situation is getting worse.”
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) described the situation as critical on Friday. The number of infections had recently increased again.
The CEO of the German Hospital Society, Gerald Gass, warned in the newspapers of the editorial network Germany that more and more clinic employees were absent due to illness or quarantine. “In some federal states, reserve clinics already have to be used because the normal clinics can no longer accommodate.” The additional burden to be expected from war refugees from Ukraine should also not be underestimated.