After only a few everyday requirements in summer, more corona protection requirements should be possible again for autumn. To this end, the Bundestag is to adopt a package of laws by the traffic light coalition today, which will provide for more extensive rules on masks and tests from October 1 to April 7, 2023. The federal states should impose the requirements and be able to expand them in a critical situation. However, the obligation to wear masks on airplanes, which has been in force for months, is to end for the time being. The opposition has criticized the plans, which are expected to have to go to the Federal Council on September 16th.
The Union called for fundamental course corrections. Health expert Tino Sorge (CDU) told the German Press Agency: “With this law, the traffic light has missed an opportunity to lead Germany back to a path of normality and personal responsibility.” She owes no answers to the central questions of the Corona autumn. “The law is full of ambiguity and leaves the federal states at a loss.” In a motion for a resolution, the Union is in favor of ending the compulsory corona vaccination for staff in nursing homes and clinics and against blanket FFP2 mask requirements in means of transport.
SPD parliamentary group leader Dagmar Schmidt, on the other hand, campaigned for approval of the compromise reached. “With the measures that have been decided and the newly adapted vaccines, we will be able to get through autumn and winter safely and well,” she told the dpa. “For us it was and is important that we protect the health of everyone in our country as best we can and take the precautions to be able to react to the coming waves.”
Specifically, it is about the future corona provisions in the Infection Protection Act. They are the legal basis for measures in the federal states and name possible instruments. In the spring, they had been significantly reduced, mainly at the urging of the FDP. With a view to an expected more critical infection situation in autumn and winter, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is also planning a new vaccination campaign, faster use of medication for the sick and more precise data on hospital occupancy. An overview:
The federal rules
FFP2 mask requirements in clinics, nursing homes and medical practices should apply nationwide. Likewise for everyone from the age of 14 on long-distance trains, for children between the ages of 6 and 13 a simpler surgical mask should be sufficient. Masks are now no longer compulsory on airplanes, but the federal government should be able to introduce them by ordinance without the consent of the Bundesrat.
In addition to the mask, a negative test should be presented before entering nursing homes and clinics. In order to strengthen the protection of those in need of care who are particularly at risk, homes should appoint officers who take care of vaccinations, hygiene and therapies for those who are sick, for example with the drug Paxlovid.
The first country level
From October 1st, the states should be able to impose conditions on themselves. This also includes the obligation to wear masks in local transport with buses and trains. However, masks should again become mandatory in publicly accessible indoor spaces such as shops and restaurants – with the mandatory exception that you do not need a mask if you show a negative test in gastronomy and at cultural, leisure or sporting events.
Tests should be mandatory in schools and daycare centers. It is also possible to make masks compulsory in schools – but only from the fifth grade and only to the extent that this is “necessary to maintain regulated face-to-face teaching”.
The second country level
In the case of a regionally more critical corona situation, the federal states should be able to impose further requirements. This also includes the obligation to wear masks at outdoor events if distances of 1.50 meters are not possible there. Hygiene concepts for companies and other facilities can be prescribed. In addition, visitor limits for indoor events should be possible.
However, the state government should not simply be able to determine these measures; a state parliament resolution should be necessary. It should also be a condition that a specific threat to the health system or other important areas of care for a region is identified – in an overall view of the number of infections and other indicators.
The bus company association BDO called for the abolition of the mask requirement for long-distance buses, just like in airplanes. Uniform and comprehensible regulations are needed, said managing director Christiane Leonard of the editorial network Germany. She justified this with the economic crisis in the industry in view of high energy prices.
