pandemic
Many corona rules are expiring – reminders to be careful
The new corona rules in Hesse only provide for a mask and test requirement in particularly sensitive areas of life such as hospitals and retirement homes. Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Most of the Corona rules are passé in large parts of Germany from Sunday. But the coronavirus is still here. Some infection control measures remain on the agenda.
Despite high infection rates, most of the corona restrictions in Germany will be lifted on Sunday. The deputy head of the FDP, Wolfgang Kubicki, sees this as an “important and gratifying step towards normality”.
“We are following what has been implemented in some of the neighboring European countries for a long time,” said the Bundestag Vice President of the German Press Agency. However, there is still debate about a general obligation to vaccinate, the wearing of protective masks and relaxed quarantine rules.
Bushman: No “sloppy law”
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann defended the amended Infection Protection Act with reference to the defense of fundamental rights. The law is strict, he admitted at a state party conference of the NRW-FDP on Saturday in Duisburg. “When it comes to protecting the freedom of citizens, a strict law is a good law and the opposite of a sloppy law,” emphasized the FDP politician.
According to the amended Infection Protection Act, most state requirements will no longer apply in large parts of Germany on Sunday. In almost all federal states, only a few general requirements for masks, for example in practices, nursing homes, clinics, buses and trains, as well as for tests in schools, for example, can be ordered. Further requirements only apply in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg. Both countries are the only ones to use the so-called hotspot rule for the time being. It allows additional requirements if the state parliament determines that the hospitals are threatened with a critical situation in the region. Regardless of state rules, companies, shops and other facilities can continue to maintain specifications such as mask requirements.
Nationwide, the number of infections remains high, even if they have been falling for a few days. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the value of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Saturday at 1531.5. The previous day it was 1586.4 and a week earlier it was 1758.4.
Protective masks don’t belong in the trash just yet
Kubicki emphasized that the mask requirement will also have to fall on buses and trains at some point, but that is not yet up for debate. The head of the Marburger Bund doctors’ union, Susanne Johna, called for people to continue wearing masks indoors. “Especially in supermarkets and restaurants, masks are still very important to contain infections,” Johna told the editorial network Germany.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) also advised this. “The risk of becoming infected has rarely been higher than it is now,” said the minister on Deutschlandfunk. Lauterbach also referred to the 200 to 300 people who die every day in connection with Corona. «That is not acceptable. That’s one plane crash every day,” said the minister.
A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn made it clear that the mask requirement on buses and trains will continue to be checked. State ordinances specify whether medical masks are permitted in addition to FFP2 masks in local transport and how mask requirements are regulated on platforms. The 3G rule (vaccinated, recovered, tested) had already been lifted on March 20th. According to the railway spokesman, from Sunday it will no longer apply to the use of on-board catering on long-distance trains.
Struggling for general vaccination
There is still a dispute about a general obligation to vaccinate. The Bundestag will vote on it on Thursday. There are several applications on the table, including compulsory vaccinations from the age of 18 and 50. Lauterbach described both applications as good and referred to ongoing negotiations. If there is an application that combines the best of both worlds, it would be a success. “I think we will submit an application for general vaccination on Thursday,” said the minister on Deutschlandfunk. He will “struggled up to the last hour”.
The Union rejects both applications and instead proposes a preventive vaccination law. Accordingly, a vaccination register is to be set up and a “stepped vaccination mechanism” introduced, which can be activated by the Bundestag and Bundesrat depending on the pandemic situation. CDU leader Friedrich Merz wrote on Twitter: “If there is no compulsory vaccination in Germany for the time being, we would be in good company in the world.”
The CEO of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gass, warned of the next wave if there were no general vaccination requirements. Only the highest possible vaccination rate will ban the risk of hospital overload, Gass told the newspapers of the Funke media group. In the “Welt am Sonntag” Gaß emphasized that a failure of a general obligation to vaccinate would also call into question the institution-related obligation to vaccinate that already applies. “This can then no longer be explained to the affected hospital employees,” said Gass.
Unions warn of relaxed quarantine rules
Rules for isolating corona infected people and contact persons also remain on the agenda. The Ministry of Health and the RKI want to shorten the period to five days and treat it less strictly. The federal states can comment on this until Monday.
The Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) criticized that with this proposal, the federal government was actually giving up control of the infection process. “Together with the end of the mask requirement, the result would be devastating: when shopping in the supermarket, people at particular risk of serious illness could not even rely on the fact that there were no verifiable corona infected people in the store,” said DGB board member Anja Piel dpa. Piel also warned that companies would then become “infection accelerators” themselves.