Federal states should be able to impose further lockdowns for the time being

In view of the further worsening of the corona situation, the federal states should now be able to impose lockdowns beyond November 25. Even after the decision planned in the Bundestag this Thursday to expire the epidemic situation of national scope, this should remain possible. This emerges from short-term changes in the main committee of the Bundestag.

According to this, the entire toolbox with lockdowns, curfews and school closings for the federal states should remain possible “until December 15, 2021 at the latest for protective measures” – but only if the federal states order these until the planned expiry of the epidemic situation on November 25. So decisions would have to be made next week.

This means that the federal-state summit this Thursday could set limit values ​​for the hospitalization rate from which these emergency measures would have to be applied.

Above all, the Union side is putting pressure on uniform nationwide rules; The CDU and CSU apparently do not want to be satisfied with the end of the epidemic emergency.

The “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” quotes from a letter from NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst to Olaf Scholz and the state governments, in which the Union-led federal states insist that the emergency continues. Wüst is currently chairman of the conference of prime ministers.

Union countries want to block the emergence of the emergency

According to “RND”, Wüst warns in the letter: “In view of the erratic and dynamic infection process with absolute maximum numbers of new infections, from the B-side’s point of view, the expiry of the epidemic situation is irresponsible.” Side (these are the Union countries) in the Federal Council “not capable of consent”.

In the letter, however, Wüst offers a compromise: The federal states must be able to react flexibly to the infection process with far-reaching measures. This is exactly what now seems possible with the changes to the traffic light legislative proposal.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had previously struck a tone similar to Wüst at an event organized by the German Association of Cities. The situation is dramatic, she warned. “The fourth wave hits our country with full force.” The number of corona cases, intensive care patients and deaths is increasing. The heads of the federal and state governments should send a clear signal on Thursday that everything must be done to slow the pandemic. Merkel also spoke out against an end to the epidemic emergency.

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There is not much left of the original plans of the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP. Actually, they only wanted to allow more lenient measures such as contact restrictions, cancellation of events, 2G, 2G Plus and 3G regulations in order to slow down the fourth wave.

It was initially unclear whether restrictions for vaccinated people could be possible again in individual federal states by mid-December. The lawyer Andrea Kießling from the Ruhr University Bochum, who had also been heard as an expert in the main committee on the new corona measures, emphasized: “If a country now decides on a lockdown including curfews / school closings, it will remain until December 15. in force.”