It was a week-long struggle, but on Wednesday Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) together with Chancellor Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD) presented a draft for a new infection protection law. This is the core of the German corona strategy for autumn – and it certainly holds surprises.
Basically, the concept has two stages: A normal basic provision – the ministers tried to use the language of “winter tires”, which you definitely raise from October to Easter. And a second stage in the case of a particularly bad pandemic situation. In the government picture, these are the “snow chains” that are only used when necessary.
The basic provision therefore includes an FFP2 mask requirement in long-distance transport and air travel. In addition, masks and tests are mandatory for access to hospitals and care facilities. However, the mask may be omitted if either a recovery or a vaccination was not more than three months ago. The Corona Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance with mask and test regulations as well as home office offers also continues to apply in companies.
Exceptions for leisure, sports and culture
This part is regulated by the federal government. In addition, the federal states can independently decide on further measures. These include an FFP2 mask requirement in local public transport and a test requirement for community facilities such as prisons, children’s homes, asylum seeker accommodation and for publicly accessible interiors. However, there is one notable exception here: For facilities and events in the leisure, cultural or sports sectors, the federal states must exempt people from the obligation to wear masks who either test negative on a daily basis, who can prove that they have recovered no more than 90 days ago or who have done the same fresh vaccination. This means the third or fourth vaccination dose.
This regulation is based on two considerations: On the one hand, the new vaccines, which are expected to be approved on September 9th, should provide a high level of protection against infection and transmission of the virus. Although this protection was also present in the old vaccines and the currently rampant virus variants, it was significantly lower. Tests and vaccinations should therefore bring more security than the mask, especially in restaurants, bars or fitness studios, that is the calculation of the federal government. Because the mask is not worn at the table in restaurants anyway. In fitness studios or in cinemas, for example, mask discipline is often low and difficult to control.
The Federal Ministry of Health hopes that the prospect of mask freedom could motivate one or the other to vaccinate who has not yet been able to bring themselves to do so. Especially since it is expected that the many restaurateurs, cinema and fitness center operators will decide independently to specify test, vaccination or recovery certificates as access authorization for their houses. This way they save themselves the control of the mask requirement and can offer perceived normality after admission. This expected reduction in leisure time is intended to reduce the number of unvaccinated people.
No mask requirement in elementary schools
The following applies to schools: If they deem it necessary, the federal states can prescribe the wearing of medical masks from the 5th grade – explicitly no FFP2 masks. The regulation must also help to maintain face-to-face teaching in schools, so it should not simply be introduced as a precaution. Masks are not compulsory for younger children.
These are the basic rules in “Winter tires” mode, they apply from October 1st to April 7th. If the pandemic situation worsens, the state parliaments can initiate the “snow chain phase” and enable stricter measures. This then includes mask requirements without the exception for vaccinated, recovered or tested people, distance requirements and upper limits for people for events. There is no fixed limit as to when these tightened measures can be introduced. The incidence, for a long time the most important benchmark for mapping the pandemic, no longer plays any role at all in the considerations for the autumn. Instead, wastewater analyzes should help to record the virus events. The decision as to whether the situation is threatening or not will probably be more political than statistical.
Lockdowns, general school or company closures or curfews are no longer possible. Overall, you are “in a much better situation than last fall,” said Lauterbach. For example, the drug Paxlovid could significantly reduce mortality, and the new vaccines would provide good protection against infection. He also expects the BA.5 variant of the Omicron to dominate in the fall. This means many infections, but fewer fatal courses than, for example, a delta wave.