The drastic restrictions on epidemic policy are actually supposed to fall on March 20th. The Minister of Health is now declaring that the countries will quickly take strict action.
Roll backwards on disease policy. On Wednesday, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) together with Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (PDF) presented the new Infection Protection Act with the tenor that people will get a large piece of normality back on March 20th. Vaccination records, masks in the workplace and in schools, half-strength events should be a thing of the past. Two days later, Lauterbach announced that these upcoming easing will soon be history. “We are in a situation that I would like to describe as critical,” said the minister on Friday in Berlin. The situation is much worse than the mood in the country.
Corona pandemic: Lauterbach expects more corona patients in the hospitals again
Lauterbach expects that there will be an infection in some regions across the whole of the republic that will bring the health system back to its breaking point. “I see that in a lot of places,” the medical professor warned. By that he means a mixture of rapidly increasing new infections paired with significantly more admissions of corona patients to the hospitals. The federal states could then make use of the so-called hotspot regulation in the revised Infection Protection Act. It would then be up to the state parliaments to reverse the easing of the epidemic policy for individual cities, districts or the entire federal state.
Lauterbach called on state politicians to prepare for this case. “I would ask the state parliaments not to stop criticizing the law,” warned the SPD politician. This had hailed in the last few days in view of the increasing number of new infections. The Robert Koch Institute reported 250,000 new cases on Friday. The nationwide incidence was approaching the 1,500 mark, 249 people died with or from an infection with the pathogen.
Video: AFP
The federal states have a little more than a week and a half to prepare a corresponding decision by the state parliamentarians. A transitional period is planned until April 2nd, during which the corona measures that have been in place so far can remain in force. Lauterbach expressly included in the possible reaction of the federal states that the mask requirement in schools would be extended. Actually, from March 20, covering your mouth and nose should only be mandatory on buses and trains, as well as in hospitals and retirement homes. It now looks as if the current regulations to contain the virus will probably not change that much.
Also read about this
The Federal Minister of Health called on the Prime Ministers of the federal states to agree on common criteria at their conference next week as to when the hotspot regulation should take effect. It was not possible for the federal government to set precise limit values for infection and hospital exposure.
Because the omicron variant is less deadly for vaccinated people, the Minister of Health was unable to extend the protective regulations that are currently in force. “We wouldn’t have gotten through before the Federal Constitutional Court,” Lauterbach explained his change of heart. The 59-year-old has been one of the loudest advocates of a strict disease policy since the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago.
You can find out more nationwide news in our news blog.
–
