And now comes the “basic protection”. Basis, basis – for what? Basis for us, i.e. society, to have the corona pandemic under control? We dont have. And quite a few say: we don’t get it that way either. By the way, not a few federal states are among the not few. They cannot assert themselves. Which – although it’s April 1st – is no joke. In fact, it can get bitterly serious.
Because the seven-day incidence remains high, and it is no consolation that many patients show relatively mild courses. But neither do many. The German health authorities have reported more than 26,000 new infections to the RKI, the Robert Koch Institute, over the past few days. As if that wasn’t enough for caution.
But you don’t have to follow the numbers alone to know that politics is taking the risk, especially federal politics, and above all – the FDP. This “basic protection” is now largely due to their instigation.
Basic protection is another word for minimum protection, even if the FDP defines it as freedom of the individual. Because, once again: The corona numbers remain high – but most of the measures are expiring. Several federal states, on the other hand, wanted to keep the restrictions. They wanted an extension of the deadline until the end of April. Declined. For this, the new Infection Protection Act would have to be changed again, with a majority in the Bundestag. And they don’t exist because – exactly, because of the consideration for the position of the FDP.
The countries should decide
Means: From Sunday, for example, the mask requirement will only apply in a few facilities, such as in clinics or nursing homes, in public transport. Nationwide 2G or 3G rules are no longer applicable. The federal government is now referring to hotspot rules that the federal states could introduce themselves.
For hotspots, the respective state parliament would have to determine a particularly critical corona situation; i.e. when patients have to be transferred to other hospitals, emergency care is at risk, planned interventions have to be postponed or care levels are below the minimum.
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The state governments in Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein then decided to let the mask requirement in shops, schools or 2G and 3G access rules expire – because the legal requirements of the federal government courts would hardly endure.
It could well be that there are no criteria in the law for when the hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, for example, considers it impossible to legally identify his entire state as a corona hotspot.
In practice, it looks like this (Copyright: the “Checkpoint” of the Tagesspiegel): On the way to the pub or to the club, a mask must still be worn in the empty bus (“basic protection”), in which “3G” is now also – undetectable aerosol sweat booths (“freedom”).
In the sign of the traffic light
Which in turn determines the new version of the nationwide Infection Protection Act, which for the first time lives up to its name in the sign of the traffic light government – SPD, Greens, FDP: It protects infections.
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Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann from the FDP has already warned the federal states that if the hotspot rules are applied too hastily, they are threatened with defeat in court. Conversely, the states suspect that this is what the federal government wants – see the ambiguities in the Infection Protection Act. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg are trying anyway. They want hotspot rules by the end of April. Oh yes, who is complaining about it next to the AfD? Exactly, the FDP.
At first the reason for their resistance was, after all, to protect the constitution. In the third Corona year, one thing is certain: it is sufficient. This does not apply to health protection. That can end bitterly, also for the FDP.
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