Many restrictions already apply. But according to the federal and state governments, they are not enough to slow down the corona virus. Relaxation is not an issue in the Bund-Länder round.
Due to the still high number of corona infections, Germany is facing an extension of the lockdown until the end of January and further tightening to reduce contacts. In a draft resolution for the Bund-Länder-Round with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) sent by the Federal Chancellery to the federal states on Tuesday, the continuation of the lockdown until January 31 was proposed. The existing contact restrictions are to be massively tightened. The final decision and the final press conference were expected in the early evening.
According to information from participants, the federal and state governments have agreed that further measures should be taken to limit the range of motion to 15 kilometers around the place of residence in counties with high numbers of corona infections. This should apply to districts with a 7-day incidence of over 200 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants – unless there is a valid reason. Day trips should therefore not be a valid reason, as the participants said. According to the draft resolution paper, over 70 counties currently have an incidence of over 200.
According to a report in the business magazine “Business Insider”, Merkel is said to have submitted the proposal for the range of motion on Monday evening in a preliminary meeting. Previously, according to information from the German Press Agency, an expert from the Max Planck Institute had previously stated in another round that “possibly” a “stay-at-home” arrangement or a restricted maximum five kilometers in size to reduce the number of infections Need a radius of movement around the residence. It also makes sense to reduce the number of passengers in local public transport to 25 percent of the seats.
In Germany there is only a limited range of motion in Saxony. Here, citizens are only allowed a maximum of 15 kilometers from their place of residence, for example to do sports or to go shopping. Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left) has now proposed a corresponding regulation for Thuringia, which is also badly affected by Covid-19.
7-day incidence in the region
District of Emmendingen: 85.9
District of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald: 83.5
District of Loerrach: 152.6
Waldshut district: 119.9
Ortenaukreis: 115,8
Freiburg city district: 87.4
Baden-Württemberg in total: 124.0
Other European countries have already gained experience with such measures. However, these were and are often combined with other restrictions – such as a night curfew – and sometimes much more stringent. For example, at times people in France were only allowed to go outside with a valid reason. For walks or sports, there was a limit of one hour per day within a maximum radius of one kilometer from your own home. In Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, it was ordered last week that people were only allowed to leave their own community for ten days with good reason, for example to go to work.
FDP parliamentary group vice Michael Theurer thinks such restrictions are nonsensical. He said: “There is no connection between movement and infection. 50 kilometers in the car alone are no risk of infection, 5 kilometers in a fully occupied subway.”
A large majority of Germans are in favor of an extension of the lockdown to contain the corona pandemic. In a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency, almost two thirds of those questioned said they should continue the restrictions at least in their previous severity beyond January 10th. 41 percent are in favor of unchanged retention, a further 24 percent are even in favor of tightening. In contrast, only 17 percent are in favor of easing the lockdown and only one in ten (11 percent) is in favor of a complete lifting of all restrictions.
The subject of vaccinations is also discussed
Another topic of the Bund-Länder round was vaccinations. So far, they are only accessible to certain groups, such as very old people. The question of who is responsible for the slow start of Covid-19 vaccinations in Germany and how more speed can be made there is still a matter of dispute. “It is crucial that Germany has sufficient vaccine available and that the vaccinations are coordinated, run quickly and consistently,” said the Greens chairman Robert Habeck. “The production capacities and the available amount of vaccine have to be increased as quickly as possible, the processing has to go ahead”
The AfD chairman Jörg Meuthen said: “Regardless of how you feel about the corona vaccination, every citizen should have the opportunity to be vaccinated.” The federal government failed to procure a sufficient amount of vaccine at an early stage. In other European countries, too, government officials are currently having to put up with critical questions about their strategy for the procurement and administration of vaccines against Covid-19.
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