Lauterbach promises easing

“We have relatively strict rules,” he said. Discotheques are closed, and with the 2G and 3G rules there are access restrictions – not only in shops but also at work.

In view of this, trade, gastronomy, unions and schools are pushing for the federal and state governments to draw up an opening plan. They demand quick and uniform decisions – also because the first federal states are already loosening up and there is a risk of a patchwork quilt.

The first federal states are already relaxing

Since Friday, only the 2G rule has applied in Baden-Württemberg, for example in restaurants, in museums and in sports halls. Previously, those who had been vaccinated and those who had recovered had to show a test here.

Business associations refer, for example, to the economic consequences of the pandemic. The Corona protective measures and the absence of employees due to illness or quarantine have already led to a loss of value added of 350 billion euros, said the President of the Association of Family Businesses, Reinhold von Eben-Worlée, the Handelsblatt.

At the same time, people have less and less understanding of the fact that different protective regulations apply everywhere: “In the supermarket, everyone is allowed to jostle in front of the checkout, while in retail, vaccination certificates have to be checked at high cost,” says the Hamburg entrepreneur.

From his point of view, it would be helpful to only prescribe a general obligation to wear FFP-2 masks in public and to demand proof of vaccination or a current test for non-vaccinated people only wherever people spend longer periods of time in closed rooms without a mask, for example in restaurants or at cultural events.

At the moment, however, the 2G obligation still applies to retail in most federal states, even if the first courts only overturned access for those who had been vaccinated and those who had recovered.

Demand for uniform rules

The companies wanted more reliability and coordination between the countries in the corona measures, Peter Adrian, President of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), also asked for the Handelsblatt.

Uniform rules would not only make sense in retail: “Because the events industry, for example, cannot plan a tour or anything similar if different regulations apply in each federal state.” Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the heads of state of the federal states had agreed at their conference on January 24th to develop a uniform regulation for major national events by February 9th.

Applicable access rules should not simply be changed from one day to the next: “If the requirements for recognition as recovered or fully vaccinated are changed overnight, even the programmed check apps can no longer keep up,” criticizes Adrian. In business, this creates additional stress in the workplace and longer queues at the entrances.

The chairman of the Südwestmetall Employers’ Association, Wilfried Porth, emphasizes that state regulations must also be reliable. In Baden-Württemberg, the administrative court quite rightly overturned the strict restrictions of alarm level 2 because the prerequisites for this were no longer met. Porth criticized that the state government had reacted to the judges’ scolding and announced that it would return to the current alarm level, but at the same time tightened some regulations so that nothing would change for the affected areas.

This applies, for example, to clubs and discotheques, but trade fairs also remain closed. “Laws and regulations should be a mutual contract that is equally binding for citizens and for politics,” said the Südwestmetall boss. Changing this unilaterally is very worthy of criticism.

Trade unions are cautious about opening steps

On the other hand, the head of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), Reiner Hoffmann, is cautious about rapid opening steps, because the protection of employees has top priority: “Due to the significantly higher infectiousness of the Omicron variant, I think loosening is premature.”

Employers are still required to maintain test offers and to exhaust all possibilities of occupational health and safety. “Effective protection in the workplace is more important than ever to avoid overloading the healthcare system and to maintain critical infrastructure.”

The 3G rule and the obligation to work from the home office continue to apply in the workplace if there are no operational reasons to the contrary. Anyone who wants to enter the company premises must present proof of being vaccinated or recovered or a negative corona test. The regulation in the Infection Protection Act is initially limited to March 19th.

The situation in schools is particularly precarious. According to the weekly statistics of the Conference of Ministers of Education, more than 360,000 of a total of eleven million schoolchildren across Germany were infected or in quarantine last week – compared to 184,000 in the previous week. In addition, more than 9500 teachers are infected.

Berlin has therefore already lifted the obligation to be present. The number of schools that are at least partially returning to distance learning is also increasing, but there is no overview of this.

Schools: hopes for easing at Easter

In view of the situation, “there is no reason to relax,” the President of the Conference of Ministers of Education, Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of Education Karin Prien (CDU), clarified to the Handelsblatt. Instead, it is about “ensuring face-to-face teaching with increased hygiene measures, masks, ventilation and additional tests”.

In the medium term, things look different: After the omicron wave subsided in spring, “slighter relaxation of the mask requirement and test concepts would be possible,” says teacher president Heinz-Peter Meidinger of the Handelsblatt. “The final “Freedom Day”, however, will be a long time coming and may not be realizable until the coming school year” – and only if no other, perhaps more dangerous virus variants appear.

The spokesman for the CDU Minister of Education, Hesse’s Minister of Education Alexander Lorz, also hopes: “If relaxation is possible around the Easter holidays in mid-April, the mask requirement should first be lifted”. Because it puts a much greater strain on children and young people than tests.

Experts consider the school area in particular to be suitable for relaxation. “The easing could be introduced in schools first, but the other areas could certainly follow soon,” says Timo Ulrichs, epidemiologist at the Chair for Global Health at the Acre University in Berlin, the Handelsblatt. The 2G-plus rule, on the other hand, should be relaxed last, as this makes transmission to unvaccinated people less likely.

Markus Scholz, an epidemiologist at the University of Leipzig, considers the order of the easing to be a “political, not an epidemiological decision”. Major events and large crowds indoors are particularly critical. “Here the restrictions should finally disappear”; he told the Handelsblatt. “For example, distances and the obligation to wear masks indoors should remain in place for longer.” However, if the trend that the virus is becoming milder and milder continues, “all measures could be eliminated”.

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