Status: October 21, 2021 4:34 p.m.
The nationwide corona emergency was actually supposed to expire at the end of November. In a resolution paper, however, the country leaders demand that corona measures can still be taken afterwards. Tomorrow the decision could be made.
The federal states want to be able to maintain the corona protective measures through autumn and winter. In a draft resolution that the heads of state chancellery agreed on, the federal government is requested to create a legally secure framework for this. This is reported by the dpa news agency, which has the paper.
The paper on the epidemic situation is to be discussed this Friday and could then also be adopted in a modified version. To this end, the prime ministers came together today for a two-day meeting at Drachenburg Castle in Königswinter in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Country leaders want to maintain protection standards
In the submission, the Prime Ministers recall their resolution of August 10, according to which the practiced Corona protection standards indoors – such as the so-called 3G rule, wearing a mask, keeping your distance, ventilation – are also fundamentally necessary in the autumn and winter months .
In the draft it is stated verbatim: “It is also of the utmost importance that the countries are given the opportunity for a limited period of time to prevent the spread of COVID-19, even after the determination of the epidemic situation of national scope has come to an end continue to take necessary and appropriate measures. ” Low-threshold measures could and should prevent “another massive increase in the number of infections that would make significantly more stringent measures necessary at the federal level or in the federal states”.
Spahn does not want to prolong the epidemic situation
The epidemic situation – which is the subject of the resolution proposal – is the basis for ordinances and central corona measures in Germany. It was first established by the Bundestag in March 2020 and later extended several times by Parliament. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) spoke out on Monday in discussions with his country colleagues that there would be no renewed extension. This would mean that the nationwide Corona emergency would expire on November 25th.
According to the Infection Protection Act, the federal states still have the option of determining the need for further corona measures through their state parliaments, so that an expiry would not automatically mean an end to measures.
Söder warns of the lack of a legal basis
Meanwhile, the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) warned of the epidemic situation at the federal level running out. If this happens, “there is no longer any legal basis – no matter what. Neither for testing in school, nor for masks, nor for completely normal ideas like 3G plus, or 2G or 3G,” said Söder.
At the start of the conference, only six of the 16 heads of government came together for initial talks, as a spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalian State Chancellery said. Many of the other members of the conference had decided not to travel to Koenigswinter until later because of the beginning negotiations on a traffic light coalition of the SPD, FDP and the Greens in Berlin.