FAQ
Status: 03/30/2022 10:40 a.m
The corona numbers remain high, but most of the measures are being phased out. The federal government refers to hotspot rules that the federal states could introduce themselves – but only a few want to implement them across the board. Where is the problem?
the initial situation
The milder course of the corona variant and the better protection provided by vaccinations meant that the federal government allowed the legal basis for the corona restrictions to expire on March 20th. Instead – mainly due to pressure from the FDP – only the order of “basic protection” applies. However, the federal states used a possible extension until April 2nd. This final transitional period is now also elapsing.
The number of corona infections remains at a high level. According to their own statements, several countries therefore wanted to retain the restrictions. At the conference of health ministers at the beginning of the week, the states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Saarland submitted an application for an extension of the deadline until the end of April. The request was rejected.
What is no longer possible from Sunday?
From Sunday, for example, the mask requirement will only apply in a few facilities, such as clinics or nursing homes and on public transport. Nationwide 2G or 3G rules should also be dropped. However, the measures can be ordered regionally under certain conditions. Shops can also enforce the mask requirement with reference to the house rules.
What other options do countries have?
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has recently repeatedly called for the federal states to use the so-called hotspot regulation. This would also make masks compulsory in shops or schools and 2G or 3G access rules regionally possible. The prerequisite is that the respective state parliament determines a particularly critical corona situation.
The Minister of Health named several points as criteria: For example, if patients have to be transferred to other hospitals, if emergency care is at risk, if planned interventions have to be postponed or if care levels are below the minimum.
It is unclear whether the hotspot rule can only apply to individual districts or municipalities or to an entire federal state. According to Lauterbach, she would. So far, however, only Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg want to implement the hotspot rule by the end of April. In Hamburg, the FDP and the AfD have already announced lawsuits.
The state governments in Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, decided to phase out the obligation to wear a mask in shops, schools or 2G and 3G access rules.
According to his own statements, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst also sees no leeway to legally identify the entire state as a corona hotspot. Lower Saxony’s Health Minister Daniela Behrens made a similar statement. And Hesse had already declared that it would not use the special rule.
In Thuringia, the red-red-green minority government wants to extend the corona measures, but a majority is uncertain.
What is the legal situation?
According to the law, the prerequisite for a hotspot is that there must be a risk of overloading the hospital capacity due to a particularly high number of new infections. Then the state parliament can declare a certain area a so-called hotspot. There, for example, the mask requirement would continue to apply indoors.
However, there are no criteria in the law for when there is a risk of hospital overload. The federal states would have to justify this with their own arguments. If the justification is understandable, the courts would probably give them a certain amount of leeway.
Even if some federal states would like to do so – they cannot extend the transition period for the current measures beyond April 2nd on their own. The Infection Protection Act would have to be changed for this, so a majority in the Bundestag would be needed.
What is the criticism of the hotspot regulation?
Several states argue that the federal legal requirements would hardly stand up in courts. The Minister of Health’s criteria for hotspots are also vague and imprecise. In fact, there is no binding threshold.
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities complains that it is unclear whether the incidence figures alone can be used as a benchmark. The German Association of Cities called for corrections to the law, which was complicated and imprecise.
Lauterbach says in turn: He would have liked to have kept the mask requirement if it had been legally possible. According to Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP), a nationwide mask requirement is not possible – since there is no risk of the health system being overloaded nationwide.
And how dramatic is the Corona situation?
The seven-day incidence remains high, but the disease is relatively mild in many patients. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported a decline on Wednesday morning. The value is 1663.0, the day before it was 1703.3. A week ago, the nationwide incidence was 1734.2. The health authorities in Germany reported 268,477 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. A week ago it was 283,732.
The number of corona-infected patients who came to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was 7.07 (Monday: 6.94) according to the RKI on Tuesday.