The Prime Ministers of the federal states want to discuss the corona crisis with the Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the likely future Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) this Tuesday. In the telephone vote scheduled for 1 p.m., the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court on the so-called federal emergency brake should be discussed.
The Karlsruhe judges want to comment on the exit and contact restrictions and school closings under the Corona federal emergency brake on Tuesday morning. The earlier emergency brake had to be pulled automatically across the country if the so-called seven-day incidence exceeded 100 for several days.
Above all, the Union-governed states are putting pressure on the federal government to impose uniform requirements across Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia is preparing further tightening of the corona measures. “The situation requires swift, determined and, above all, united action,” said the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU), who is also chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference. “The virus knows no government break, which is why, in addition to effective measures in the federal states, a nationwide coordinated approach to key issues is urgently needed,” said Wüst. In addition, there should be a return to the mask requirement at the seat in all schools.
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Wüst demanded that the federal and state governments urgently need to talk about uniform standards for significant reductions in contact, the preparation of a general vaccination requirement, the provision of economic aid for possible further restrictions and the establishment of the new crisis team. The next meeting at a Prime Minister’s Conference is scheduled for December 9th. Whether it should be brought forward is a matter of dispute among the countries. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said he could not make a new appointment announcement.
Nationwide contact restrictions in discussion
In the meantime, Baden-Württemberg, which is ruled in green, is calling for the federal-state round to be brought forward and for nationally uniform rules to be imposed at the same time. The Baden-Württemberg Health Minister Manfred Lucha (Greens) demanded on Germany radio on Monday that the Bundestag should resolve the “epidemic situation of national scope” again this week and pave the way for a nationwide emergency brake.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left), in turn, is in favor of bringing the Prime Minister’s Conference forward on the condition that the laws to combat the corona pandemic are subsequently changed accordingly.
The SPD, Greens and FDP let the epidemic situation expire on November 25 as the legal basis for nationwide corona restrictions. In the new Infection Protection Act, they introduced further measures, such as 2G and 3G rules, i.e. access only for vaccinated and convalescent people (2G) and also for those who have been tested (3G). Other measures such as the nationwide closure of shops or schools as well as curfews are no longer possible.
Countries that nevertheless imposed drastic measures before November 25th are allowed to maintain them until December 15th according to the new legal situation.
For example, Bavaria and Saxony – the numbers of infections are particularly high in both countries – have imposed a lockdown in hotspot regions. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is still calling for the contact restrictions to be introduced nationwide, even if, for example, northern German states have significantly lower numbers of infections and, at the same time, higher vaccination rates.
But now the same strict rules would be needed for the whole country, said Söder. The incidences have recently fallen in Bavaria. This is a trend “that has been emerging for a few days,” says Söder. This shows that “our measures are beginning to work”.
Experts call for “emergency circuit breakers”
The virologist Christian Drosten had also pointed out in the ZDF “Heute Journal” that the R value was falling slightly for the first time. The R value indicates how many people an infected person infects on average – and thus how quickly a virus spreads. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the R value is below one for the first time, namely 0.93. For effective containment, virologists consider an R value of 0.7 to be necessary.
In view of the situation, however, a group of experts came out in favor of a legal basis with a view to a kind of emergency circuit breaker and other far-reaching measures. “Precautions of this kind are urgently required, especially with regard to the new Omikron variant,” says a statement by the group around the physicist and modeler Viola Priesemann.
In addition to the bundle of emergency measures, the tracking of contacts in people with Omikron infection should have “currently absolute priority”. Sufficient staff and resources should be made available for this. A systematic genomic record is also necessary.
The experts point out that the limit values set for hospitalization incidence of 6.0 (critical situation) and 9.0 (highly critical situation) have in fact already been exceeded in most federal states. The incidence of hospitalization – the number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days – now plays an essential role in assessing the incidence of infection. Due to the sometimes severe reporting delays, the value in the statistics usually appears to be significantly lower than it already is in reality.
FDP against renewed lockdown
There have also been signals from the traffic light parties that they are ready to take further measures to reduce the number of infections. However, the SPD, the Greens and, above all, the FDP wanted to wait for the Federal Constitutional Court’s verdict.
The FDP, in turn, stressed on Monday that it wanted to avoid widespread closings. “I rule out a nationwide lockdown at the moment,” said the health policy spokeswoman for the parliamentary group, Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus, on N-TV. She pointed to the severe social and economic damage of previous lockdowns.
On the one hand, everything must now be done to increase the vaccination rate. On the other hand, there must be contact restrictions in the hotspots. For example, clubs and discos would have to be closed, and major events such as football games “should not be possible in my opinion at the moment,” said Aschenberg-Dugnus.
The traffic light coalition has also announced the establishment of a permanent federal-state crisis team. Major General Carsten Breuer is in discussion as the leader. The 56-year-old is in charge of the Bundeswehr’s territorial tasks. The crisis team should, among other things, look after the improvement of the vaccination campaign. Most recently, doctors complained that too little vaccine was being delivered.
The vaccination campaign has accelerated significantly in the past few weeks. At the weekend, the RKI registered more than 660,000 corona vaccinations.
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