Berlin In view of an imminent wave of pandemics in autumn, the federal government has agreed on a phased approach to the corona protection measures. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) and Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD) announced this on Wednesday afternoon.
The Corona autumn and winter plan contains numerous measures that are bundled under the keyword “winter tires” and are to apply from October to Easter, said Schmidt. This includes, for example, wearing an FFP2 mask for passengers in air and long-distance traffic. In addition, a mask and test certificate is required for access to hospitals and care facilities.
The federal states can also determine more extensive protective measures. This includes the obligation to wear masks in local public transport and in publicly accessible indoor areas. In addition, wearing a medical mask in schools can be ordered from the fifth grade, as well as tests in schools, daycare centers and other facilities.
A mandatory exception applies to leisure, cultural or sporting events, in leisure and cultural facilities as well as in gastronomic facilities and when practicing sports for newly recovered, tested or vaccinated people. Minister of Justice Buschmann said: “The mask is a great burden there, or constant use cannot be ensured.” This is very “realistic and proportionate”.
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The “snow chains” would also be applied if the situation worsened “on the basis of certain legally regulated indicators” that demonstrate a danger to the health system, according to the Corona plan.
Countries are guided by the hotspot rule
The indicators are determined by the federal states and are based on the hotspot rule laid down in the current Infection Protection Act in March. These include, for example, hospital and intensive care bed occupancy. So far, however, the hotspot rule has hardly been used.
The new Corona rules from autumn
– Masks are compulsory in air and long-distance public transport
– Masks are compulsory in hospitals and care facilities
–> Exceptions: If the mask prevents treatment or other medical reasons and in personal premises. Also for children under 6 years.
– Obligation to provide evidence of testing in hospitals and care facilities
–> Exceptions: For newly vaccinated and recovered people, as well as for residents and patients
– Masks are compulsory in local public transport
– Mask requirement in publicly accessible interiors
–> Exceptions with 3G proof: At leisure, cultural or sporting events, in leisure and cultural facilities as well as in gastronomic facilities and when practicing sports
– Compulsory tests in community facilities such as day-care centers, children’s homes or detention facilities
– Mask requirement in schools
–> Requirement: Only for children from the fifth school year and employees if this is necessary to maintain face-to-face classes
– Ordering a minimum distance of 1.5 m in public spaces
– Mandatory hygiene concepts for companies, facilities and events
– Fixed maximum number of people for events in publicly accessible indoor areas
Then, following a state parliament resolution, the federal states could prescribe FFP2 masks for restaurants and publicly accessible interiors without exceptions, distance requirements, mandatory hygiene concepts and upper limits for persons at events.
Health Minister Lauterbach said with regard to the measures that there would be many cases in autumn and winter. “But they will not be as deadly as the Delta cases.” There will also be new vaccines that are adapted to the omicron variant.
Lauterbach and Buschmann have agreed on a seven-point plan
Lauterbach spoke of a seven-point plan. “Vaccination campaigns with new vaccines, pandemic radar with up-to-date data, test and treatment concepts, protection concepts for nursing homes and a legally secure framework for protective measures: we can work with that,” he said.
The current Infection Protection Act expires on September 23 and is to apply as a transitional regulation until October 1. In the spring, the instruments were severely reduced under pressure from the FDP. General mask requirements when shopping or for events and access rules such as 2G and 3G were eliminated.
Months of negotiations preceded the autumn plan. SPD and Greens had pushed the FDP to make a decision before the summer break – and insisted on as many protective measures as possible. The Liberals, in turn, opposed it. Most recently, Buschmann and Lauterbach negotiated bilaterally. “Very loyal and discreet,” as the Minister of Justice emphasized.
Last week, the Minister of Health had already announced that the protective rules should be able to do without closing schools. Overall, however, “many more extensive measures” are planned for different scenarios, which the federal states and in some cases the federal government could use.
Previously, Lauterbach had also spoken out in favor of quantity restrictions at major events and access restrictions.
First reactions to advance
The first reactions to the advance of the traffic light were largely positive, but there was also criticism in detail. The epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs from the Akkon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin described the measures to the Handelsblatt as “very sensible overall”.
Nevertheless, with the exceptions mentioned, there are “some loopholes for the virus”. According to the expert, a general obligation to wear masks in all publicly accessible indoor spaces as a nationwide measure would have been better. “What is missing are possible measures for returning travelers, but the problem is not (yet) acute and it could be improved if a new variant should appear somewhere in the world.”
In an interview with the Handelsblatt, the chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, welcomed the fact that the federal states can take further measures if the health system is at risk.
“The decisive factor for this must be criteria that are uniformly defined nationwide and go beyond the pure incidence figures,” he said. “Binding criteria can include the occurrence of an aggressive virus variant and the degree of utilization of the intensive care units.”
However, the deputy chairwoman of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Henriette Neumeyer, complained about the lack of financial support for clinics. “The possibility of reintroducing the mask requirement indoors in the fall is correct.”
In view of the debate about the right measures to contain the wave, according to Neumeyer, it is questionable why the hospitals would continue to be left out in the rain without financial help.
“We would have hoped for more from the design”
Neumeyer referred to the expired support, loss of income and extreme cost increases due to inflation. “With eyes wide open, the government is putting the hospitals in financial difficulties and in danger of insolvency in the autumn wave. This is an unsustainable state of affairs and needs to be changed urgently,” she said.
The state government in Baden-Württemberg was also disappointed with the project. “We would have hoped for more from the draft, since the decisive means, namely a comprehensive toolbox for the federal states, is not provided,” said Minister of Health Manne Lucha (Greens) of the German Press Agency in Stuttgart.
The draft falls short of the country’s expectations. Lucha criticized that it was not possible to introduce so-called 2G or 3G restrictions or contact restrictions in private and public spaces in extreme cases when the infection situation worsened.
More: Absences higher than they have been in ten years: the flu wave causes a record number of sick leave.