Lockdown, next level
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.Lockdown until February 14th, medical masks will be mandatory - which measures the federal and state governments have decided.
The corona numbers are falling - but far too slowly. And now you have to be prepared for the new, more contagious virus mutants. The federal and state governments have therefore decided to further tighten the package of measures - initially until February 14th.
Until then, "a concept for a safe and fair opening strategy is to be developed, which also creates the necessary conditions to avoid a renewed increase in the numbers" - this was the proposal of the Chancellery at the conference of measures with the federal states.
Little has changed for the people in Bavaria: the measures that have now been taken are already in force.
The measures at a glance
The federal and state governments want to agree on the following measures:
Medical masks are mandatory
Medical masks (surgical masks or FFP2 masks) protect both the person opposite and the wearer from infection better than ordinary everyday masks. They should therefore be compulsory in shops and in public transport. Wearing simple mouth and nose covers is no longer sufficient there.
In Bavaria, even the high-quality FFP2 masks, which provide significantly better protection than surgical masks, have been mandatory since this week - for shopping and in local public transport. But these are expensive and the offer is limited in the long term. That is why other countries want to allow the simpler, cheaper surgical masks.
You can read all the answers on the subject of masks in the article “Mask requirement”.
Night curfews
There will be no nightly curfews nationwide for the time being. If the measures that have now been decided are not enough, this could be reconsidered. The idea behind it is that in this way some get-togethers are prevented - dinner invitations, joint television evenings - or illegal parties.
They have been in effect in Bavaria for weeks anyway. Even on New Year's Eve, citizens had to be home by 9 p.m. at the latest - or spend the night with their hosts.
Exceptions are unavoidable journeys - to the emergency pharmacy, or for systemically important people such as doctors on their way from the night shift. Even those who have to take their dog for a walk are allowed to go outside.
More home office
The obligation to work from home, which some called for, has not yet been implemented. However, the pressure on employers should be increased. The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs will issue an ordinance according to which employers must enable working from home wherever the activities allow.
Until then, there will be urgent appeals. In fact, there are currently only half as many people in the home office as there were in the spring lockdown. So much more would be possible.
The risk of getting infected on public transport on the way to work would also be reduced by working more from home.
Where home office is not possible, employers will have to provide their employees with medical masks in the future.
Schools and daycare centers
The federal and state governments struggled for a particularly long time on Tuesday over the question of school openings and daycare. The result: schools are to remain closed until further notice, distance learning will continue to take place.The kindergarten and daycare children should also continue to be cared for at home, if possible. Emergency care will pass it on - also in schools. In regions with particularly low incidence values, however, a decision could be made to resume schools. It is becoming apparent here that the countries will handle this differently.
Restricted range of motion
In regions where the 7-day incidence is over 200 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants, a restricted range of motion of 15 kilometers already applies.
The idea of prescribing this even earlier if it is foreseeable that the numbers will not drop below a 7-day incidence of 50 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants is off the table for the time being.
Among other things, the measure is intended to reduce the onslaught of local recreation areas, where people sometimes crowd on wintry lakeside promenades or toboggan slopes.
Critics complain that this is difficult to control. On the other hand, the rule can even have a negative effect if people want to escape the crowded parks in the cities and instead trudge through lonely forests.
Public transportation
The proposed requirement to only use a maximum of a third of public transport with passengers was not implemented. Here one relies on the effect of increased home office regulations and medical masks.
Contact restrictions
Private get-togethers should "continue to be permitted in the group of members of the own household and with a maximum of one other person who does not live in the household".
The original idea that “generally only meetings with people from one or two other clearly defined households are permitted” has been deleted.
