At their early meeting on how to deal with the corona pandemic on August 10, the federal and state governments want to discuss the criteria according to which the future measures in the fight against the virus should be determined.

After the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) wrote in a situation assessment that the incidence, i.e. the number of infected people per 100,000 inhabitants within the previous seven days, was still the "leading indicator for infection dynamics", said the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU chairman Markus Söder after a meeting of the Union Prime Minister late on Tuesday evening that the “incidence value itself” had to be “reinterpreted” based on the number of people vaccinated so far.

Eckart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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The RKI must clarify the incidence value from which an overload of the health system threatens. Then it must be clarified which measures must be taken to react. Söder demanded on ZDF: "Someone who has been vaccinated twice must - regardless of the incidence value - have access to shops or restaurants." According to the Federal Ministry of Health, more than half of the German population was fully vaccinated on Wednesday.

In the debate about a general corona test obligation for travelers returning, it is still unclear from what point in time this should apply.

The deputy spokeswoman for the federal government, Ulrike Demmer, pointed out the “ongoing voting process” in the government in Berlin on Wednesday.

She couldn't give an appointment.

The government apparently hopes to reach an agreement before the prime ministerial conference on the corona pandemic on August 10th.

In contrast to Söder's remarks

Demmer's statements contradict Söder's statements. On Tuesday evening, in television interviews on ZDF and ARD, he gave the impression that the federal government had promised extended testing for returnees from August 1st; it was made clear that the legal basis was in place. Söder said stationary border controls to check motorists should not take place. For Bavaria he announced veil searches.

Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) had already called for such a test procedure to be introduced last week. This should make a corona test compulsory for those who return to Germany and are neither fully vaccinated nor recovered, regardless of which means of transport are used and which area they are returning from. After Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had already shown her confidence on Tuesday that an agreement would be reached in the coalition, SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken also supported the project on Wednesday. "I am absolutely in favor of us taking a close look at travelers," she said on RTL television. It is "to be seen very clearly" that trips abroad involve risks.

The chairwoman and candidate for chancellor of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, warned that the mistakes of the previous summer should not be repeated. It is absolutely necessary that those returning to travel who do not have a double vaccination are properly tested from now on, said Baerbock when visiting a cement works in the Swabian Alb-Danube district. The AfD top candidate for the federal election, Alice Weidel, spoke out against compulsory testing.