Pandemic update Bundestag approves new Corona measuring plan
Berlin · A new plan for how to more accurately assess the pandemic situation has long been debated. Now one has been approved. Changes are also to come for employees in some sensitive areas.
For the fight against the pandemic in the autumn and winter, the number of Corona patients in the clinics is to be the most important yardstick. This provides for an amendment to the Infection Protection Act, which the Bundestag passed on Tuesday.
The states are to be able to use it - as well as other indicators - to assess and determine when stricter Corona requirements are necessary. This is intended to replace the previous orientation on infection figures, which are no longer considered as meaningful due to the large number of vaccinated persons. In addition, employees in daycare centres, schools and nursing homes are to be able to be asked by their employer whether they have been vaccinated.
Speakers from the opposition criticised the new regulations even in what was probably the last plenary session before the Bundestag elections. The black-red coalition had attached them to the ongoing legislative process to set up a billion-dollar aid fund for reconstruction after the flood disaster in western Germany. The Bundesrat is still to approve the amendments in a special session on Friday. This should also provide clarity for the next period, during which the formation of the new government is likely to be negotiated.
SPD health expert Sabine Dittmar defended the regulations. Information on vaccination status, which has long been a matter of course for employees in hospitals, would be extended to other facilities where people in need of protection come into close contact, for good reason. Union faction vice chairman Stephan Stracke (CSU) said the new regulations on Corona situation assessment provide for precisely fitting solutions on site. Incidence would continue to be considered as one of the benchmarks.
Left faction vice chairwoman Gesine Lötzsch criticised, with view of the inoculation status information, that the government wants to nix the relations between employers and employees hastily. FDP vice chairman Wolfgang Kubicki criticised the general course with further restrictions on basic rights. "There is no danger from non-vaccinated people, the danger comes exclusively from infected people.“
THE NEW CORONA INDICATORS: In future, the states are to be able to largely determine locally when stricter everyday restrictions become necessary. "The essential yardstick" for measures to be taken is to be, in particular, the number of Corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. However, "other indicators" are also to be taken into account. The number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days, available intensive care capacities and the number of people vaccinated are mentioned. The federal states are then to be able to determine where critical threshold values lie.
The background to this is that the number of new infections (incidence), previously used as a central indicator, no longer has such a strong and direct impact on the hospital load in view of the millions of people vaccinated. Until now, the Infection Protection Act has specified fixed, uniform values at which seven-day incidence the states or local authorities should intervene: at 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days, for example, with "comprehensive protective measures.“
THE NEW IMPACT: In future, employers should be able to demand information from employees in daycare centres, schools and nursing homes about a Corona vaccination or a survived Covid illness. This is because particularly vulnerable groups of people are cared for there, and numerous people are also exposed to a risk of infection because of the close proximity. Therefore, for infection control reasons, it may be necessary to "deploy employees differently or refrain from employing unvaccinated persons (in certain areas)" depending on their vaccination and antibody status.
The extended vaccination status query is to apply only during the identified "epidemic situation of national significance," which the Bundestag extended last week for another three months for the time being. The data is to be collected directly from the employee. "The voluntary nature of the decision to seek vaccination protection remains unaffected," the draft says in explanation.
ADDITIONAL BASIS FOR 3G RULE: The 3G rule, which has already been adopted by the federal and state governments and implemented in many places, will now also be explicitly anchored in the Infection Protection Act - i.e., access to certain indoor areas only for vaccinated, recovered and tested persons. For preventive protection against infection, obligations to present appropriate proof can also be provided for - such as distance requirements or obligations to wear masks. (Original text: dpa / Translation: Mareike Graepel)