How will things continue after April 2nd in terms of Corona rules? The first federal states already have concrete plans. An overview.
How to deal with the protective measures against the corona virus after April 2nd is becoming clearer in more and more federal states.
In Hamburgthe Senate confirmed its intention to continue to use the so-called hotspot regulation until the end of April, initially to continue to rely on extended containment measures such as a mask requirement indoors. countries like Baden-Wuerttemberg, Berlin and Saxony however, did not consider the application of the rule.
Hamburg wants to declare itself a corona hotspot
In Hamburg, the citizenship will discuss the Senate’s proposal on Wednesday. According to the new Federal Infection Protection Act, activation of the hotspot regulation is only possible through state parliament resolutions. The state parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania already declared the entire federal state a hotspot last Thursday in view of the considerable number of infections. Hamburg now wants to follow.
Senate spokesman Marcel Schweitzer justified the step with concerns that the health system would be overloaded without extended protective measures. The experience of the pandemic shows that increasing numbers of infections lead to a growing burden on the health system and hospitals with a time lag, he told journalists. The numbers have already increased “significantly”. The time to act is “now”.
the Baden-Württemberg The state government, on the other hand, will refrain from applying the hotspot rule. “After the expiry of the transitional regulation under the Infection Protection Act, it will use the measures that the Infection Protection Act still makes available to the federal states as part of basic protection,” said the two governing parties, the Greens and the CDU, on Thursday after a meeting of their joint coalition committee in Stuttgart.
Possible regional overloads in the health system should be avoided by relocating patients and staff and similar measures “below the regulation level”, it said. “We can only work with a very limited set of tools,” said Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens). At the same time, he called on people to continue wearing masks “out of personal responsibility”, for example indoors.
The state governments of Saxony, Berlin as Brandenburg decided on Tuesday to limit themselves to the basic protective measures regulated in the Infection Protection Act. Hesse had already done so on Monday. According to the corresponding notifications, an activation of hotspot regulations was not up for discussion. At the same time, governments also called on citizens to wear masks voluntarily indoors.
2G and 3G rules only possible in exceptional cases
Elsewhere, decisions are still pending. In Thuringia the red-red-green minority government wants to further extend the existing corona measures. A special session of the state parliament is planned for Thursday. But a majority is uncertain.
On Monday, Baden-Württemberg and several other states failed in their attempt to extend the corona protection measures by a further four weeks at a conference of health ministers. According to a new version of the Federal Infection Protection Act that recently came into force, these must finally expire on April 2nd. Mask requirements are then only permitted, for example in local transport and in nursing homes, as well as test requirements there.
Extended protective measures such as a general obligation to wear masks indoors or access regulations based on the 2G and 3G principle are then exceptionally only permissible in so-called hotspot regions. A corresponding parliamentary resolution is required for this.
Even Lower Saxony According to state social affairs minister Daniela Behrens (SPD), no application of the hotspot rule was planned. From Saturday, only the basic requirements of the Infection Protection Act will apply, she said in Hanover. For North Rhine-Westphalia Vice Prime Minister Joachim Stamp (FDP) spoke out against the use of the hotspot rule. There is “no need” for this.
New coronavirus infections remain at a high level
The number of confirmed corona cases in Germany remains at a high level. The health authorities in Germany reported 237,352 new infections to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) within one day, as the RKI announced. A week ago there were 222,080 infections. The value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week – the seven-day incidence – was 1703.3 on Tuesday morning (previous day: 1700.6, previous week: 1733.4). According to the information, 307 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago it was 264.
According to an evaluation by the Barmer health insurance company, more people have been reported unemployed during the current corona wave than at any time since the beginning of the pandemic. From February 13th to 19th, 52,100 employees insured with Barmer were on sick leave due to a corona infection, as the health insurance company announced on Tuesday. At the peak of the first corona wave, there were up to 25,100 people in employment – about half as many.
Source: Stern
