In the fight against the spread of the Omikron variant of the Corona virus, the federal and state governments are considering contact restrictions after Christmas, even for vaccinated and recovering persons. From 28 December, private gatherings of vaccinated and recovered persons should only be allowed with a maximum of ten people, according to a draft resolution available to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur and several media outlets in preparation for the federal-state conference on Tuesday. In particular, New Year's Eve celebrations with a large number of people are not justifiable in the current situation.

According to dpa information, the draft was sent out by the Chancellery on Monday morning. However, it is only an interim status. The heads of government of the federal states will meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Tuesday to discuss the proposals.

According to the preliminary proposal, the upper limit of ten persons should apply to private meetings indoors as well as outdoors. Children up to 14 years of age would be exempt. As soon as an unvaccinated person attends a meeting, the contact restrictions for unvaccinated persons should apply again: The meeting would then have to be limited to one’s household and a maximum of two people from another household.

In addition, all clubs and discos are to close nationwide. Events indoors, but also outdoors, are to be subject to new capacity limits, but these are not yet mentioned in the proposed resolution.

According to the Ministry of Education, schools in NRW will have enough rapid tests available even after the Christmas holidays. The procurement procedure for new supplies to secondary schools from 17 January onwards has been completed, the Ministry announced in Düsseldorf on Monday. The tests ordered react to all known variants of the coronavirus. Since the previous supply contract expires at the end of the year, the secondary schools had already been asked in November to stockpile tests for the first weeks after the Christmas holidays as a precaution - so that there would be no bottlenecks.

The secondary schools had sufficient supplies, said Education Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP), according to the press release. Nevertheless, her ministry had organised a special delivery of an additional six million antigen self-tests. On the first day after the holidays, all pupils in the state would have to be tested - including primary and special needs pupils. For them, the lollipop tests would remain in place.

Original text: dpa/ga

Translation: Mareike Graepel