Before the federal and state consultations on the corona shutdown, a conflict about further aggravation is emerging. While an extension of the current restrictions seems likely, according to SPIEGEL information, a new proposal by the Chancellery has met with resistance from the federal states.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing for the introduction of tough exit restrictions from an incidence of 100 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. This is currently the case in many regions of Germany. In addition, it is still unclear what effects the period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve will have on the infection rate.
The magazine “Business Insider” and the “Tagesspiegel” had previously reported on it. But it was still open whether the point would really be included in the decision paper for the deliberations in the afternoon.
The Chancellery intends to restrict people’s range of motion in regions with correspondingly high numbers of infections. In Germany, such measures have so far only been in place in Saxony, where people are allowed a maximum of 15 kilometers from their place of residence. Merkel also has this radius in mind. In Thuringia, Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) had recently proposed a corresponding regulation, but it met with criticism from its own government, as SPIEGEL reported. Outside Germany, this practice is already in use in several countries, including France.
However, in a current cabinet proposal from Thuringia, which SPIEGEL has received, the 15 kilometer rule is removed again. There it only says that the citizens are “stopped”, so it is only recommended.
Report: Countries open to contact restrictions as in spring
Other measures are also being discussed: According to Business Insider, the heads of government of the federal states are ready to tighten the previous contact restrictions. The country chiefs gave the green light for this on Tuesday morning at a preliminary meeting for the summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Accordingly, similar contact restrictions as in spring could apply until the end of January. Basically, that would mean that meetings would only be allowed with one person from another household.
“There would be a consensus within the countries,” the magazine quoted a participant in the preliminary meeting as saying. So far, meetings with another household with a total of five people are allowed, not counting children under 14 years of age.
According to the report, the prime ministers are also prepared in principle to support a restriction of the range of motion. However, many reservations were also expressed in the preliminary discussion: According to this, this should only apply in districts with more than 200 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in one week – and only as one of various measures.
Merkel apparently also wants to take the problem of the vaccine shortage more into her own hands: According to SPIEGEL information, a round between the Chancellor and the responsible ministers is planned for Wednesday. Among other things, the question will be at which points additional vaccine production can be supported by the federal government.