Coronavirus: More rights for those who have been fully vaccinated and those who have recovered

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Fully vaccinated and recovered people should be given more rights again. In particular, these groups should be exempted from requirements for private meetings and nocturnal exit restrictions. This emerges from a draft regulation that is available to the German Press Agency. Other media also reported about it. The Ministry of Justice sent the proposal to the other federal ministries on Thursday. The Bundestag and Bundesrat must agree. If the SPD has its way, that should happen in the coming week.

“The Basic Law only allows restrictions on our basic rights if there is a special justification for this. The protection of life and health in the pandemic is such a justification, ”said Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) Lambrecht to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “If, however, it is now proven that those who have been completely vaccinated and recovered do not pose any particular danger, then we must remove the restrictions on their fundamental rights. This is not about special rights or privileges, but about a central requirement of our constitutional state. "

The draft says: "This means that vaccinated and recovered people will be able to enter shops, visit zoos and botanical gardens or use the services of hairdressers and podiatrists again without prior testing."

Additional effort for the police

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Anyone who is fully vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19 should not have to adhere to the locally applicable exit restrictions.

For those who have to monitor compliance with the restrictions, for example the police, this means additional work.

Checks take place anyway, for example if someone is on their way home from work after 10 p.m.

According to the draft, the restriction of private gatherings to members of the same household and one other person - plus children up to 14 years of age - should not apply if the meeting is only attended by vaccinated people or those who have recovered.

At private meetings of vaccinated or convalescent people with other people who are neither vaccinated nor recovered from Covid-19, the members of these two groups are not counted.

For example, members of a household could meet with a couple who have already been vaccinated.

And those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered should have another advantage: they are not required to quarantine after entering a risk area - unless they have stayed in a country that is classified as a virus variant area.

Mask requirement remains

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For everyone, however, the obligation to wear a mask in certain places should continue to apply, as well as the requirement of distance in public spaces.

People with Covid-19 symptoms such as shortness of breath or loss of smell and taste should be excluded from the planned relief.

Proof of a complete vaccination can therefore be provided on paper or digitally in German, English, French, Italian or Spanish.

The vaccination must have been made with a vaccine listed at the federally owned Paul Ehrlich Institute.

And “at least 14 days must have passed since the last required individual vaccination”.

This is usually the second syringe; with the Johnson & Johnson preparation, one is enough.

In the case of convalescents, proof of a vaccination dose should generally be sufficient.

You should also have to prove that you have recovered - with proof of a positive PCR laboratory test that was at least 28 days and no more than six months ago.

This proof should also be possible in German, English, French, Italian or Spanish and on paper or electronically.

Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) said that if you no longer have the original test certificate, you can have this certified again at the same point.

You also have to be free from symptoms of illness.

SPD demands more speed

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Spahn said on Thursday that equating people with negative tests, for example when visiting the hairdresser or entering the country, is a relatively easy part to clarify.

With other contact and exit restrictions, however, it is a matter of difficult considerations.

The government wants to involve the Bundestag and Bundesrat in votes on an ordinance at an early stage in order to proceed quickly.

“If we are in agreement, it'll be quick.” The “latest” date for a final decision by the Federal Council is May 28.

The SPD demanded more speed.

Otherwise there was a threat of court decisions, said legal expert Johannes Fechner.

It must be avoided that the Federal Constitutional Court lifts the federal emergency brake "with the conceivable reason that it does not differentiate between vaccinated and non-vaccinated".

The opposition and some federal states had previously accused the federal government of deliberately delaying the adoption of the exception regulation. Several federal states have already taken action and put vaccinated people on an equal footing with those who tested negative, for example when it comes to access to shops and services.