The measures were agreed by the state and federal governments at a meeting on Tuesday and will take effect no later than 28 December.
A maximum of ten people, excluding children under the age of 14, will be able to gather in private events together, and this will also apply to vaccinated and sick people.
Due to the new type of virus, Germany has to reckon with a new wave of Covid-19 cases, Scholz said.
“It will not end as soon as we hoped,” the chancellor said of the pandemic.
“I would rather give you more positive news just before the Christmas holidays,” Scholz told reporters after the meeting. “We’re all fragile and tired. But it doesn’t help. We have to be together again and in many cases keep our distance.”
“Vaccination, vaccination, vaccination is still our goal,” Scholz said, saying he wanted 80% of the population to be vaccinated in the near future.
Vaccination rates in Germany lag behind some Western European countries. 70.4% of the population are fully vaccinated.
The goal is to have another 30 million people receiving a booster dose by the end of January, the chancellor said, stressing that booster vaccination is crucial to reducing the effects of omicron.
27 million people have received support in Germany.
The risk of non-vaccinated adults becoming infected and developing Covid-19 severely with the onset of omicron has increased, Scholz warned.
A meeting of the state and federal governments was convened in response to a call from the new federal government meeting of Coronavir experts.
The rapid spread of omicron posed a “new dimension” to the pandemic in Germany, the council warned.
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