According to Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD), the traffic light coalition has finished negotiating the new Infection Protection Act. This is intended to contain a possible further corona wave in the coming months. “I think the package is very good. We are prepared for the fall,” Lauterbach told the newspapers of the Funke media group about the draft negotiated with Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP). “At the same time, it protects us from being overburdened by too many Covid patients and from a critical situation caused by staff shortages.”
Lauterbach did not provide any specific information about the components of the legislative package, but the presentation is expected shortly. This is about follow-up regulations for the Corona provisions in the Infection Protection Act, which expire on September 23. They are the legal basis for measures by the federal states and specify instruments that they may use. In the spring, they were severely reduced under pressure from the FDP. General mask requirements when shopping or for events and access rules such as 2 G and 3 G were eliminated. A few days ago, it was heard about the current compromise work for autumn that masks would be compulsory indoors.
Lauterbach nevertheless warned of a “very difficult” autumn. Even those who were vaccinated four times with the previous vaccines would only have an infection protection of less than 40 percent compared to the omicron variant BA.5. The SPD politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group that he feared that critical infrastructure and hospitals could be overloaded. In order to assess the pandemic, comprehensive wastewater analyzes for the virus should also be carried out in the future: “We rely on a combination of incidence, admissions to the clinics and wastewater tests.”
School closures not planned
Lauterbach had previously announced on ARD that the corona protection rules for the fall should do without closing schools. Overall, however, “many further measures” are planned for different scenarios, which the federal states and sometimes also the federal government could use. Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) also rejects a general mask requirement for the coming school year. She told the editorial network Germany: “The mask requirement makes learning, language acquisition and togetherness more difficult.”
Health Minister Lauterbach also wants to facilitate access to the corona drug Paxlovid in the fight against Corona: “We want risk patients and people over 60 years of age to be supplied with Paxlovid more quickly,” he told the Funke newspapers. “For the elderly, Paxlovid is life-saving when used quickly.” From next week, the tax will therefore be reorganized. The antiviral drug has been approved in the EU since January.