The Hamburg Senate decided on Tuesday a so-called 2-G option model that allows public facilities to only admit those who have been vaccinated or recovered.
If facilities such as cinemas or restaurants opt for the model from Saturday onwards, most of the restrictions, such as distance rules or requirements for the allocation of seats, except for the mask requirement, do not apply.
Matthias Wyssuwa
Political correspondent for Northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.
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If the facilities remain with the 3-G model, the tested may also be admitted;
however, the other restrictions still apply.
Lower Saxony also presented a new ordinance on Tuesday that should enable people who have been vaccinated and recovered from this Wednesday to have an easier everyday life.
Hamburg's First Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) said that more than two thirds of Hamburgers had already been vaccinated at least once and those who had been vaccinated and those who had recovered had no significant share in the infection process.
While the incidence in the city is currently just under 80, it is less than five among those who have been vaccinated.
“We have a fourth wave, which is a wave of the unvaccinated.” Across Germany, the incidence on Tuesday was 58, according to the Robert Koch Institute.
With regard to the relief for vaccinated and convalescent people, Tschentscher said that restrictions could only be maintained for as long as they were necessary to combat the pandemic. They want to give the industries planning security, but also want to create an incentive to vaccinate. Until further notice, children and young people up to the age of 18 are exempt from the regulation. For people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, there are no exceptions - after all, they are particularly at risk, it said. While the Hamburg CDU welcomed the path of the red-green Senate, the FDP and AfD were outraged. The FDP state chairman Michael Kruse said that the Senate creates "first and second class citizens".
Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had previously expressed concerns about considerations to reserve freedoms only to vaccinated and convalescent people. She does not see how such a severe restriction can be justified with the protection against infection. But it makes a difference whether a restaurateur, within the scope of his contractual freedom, only serves vaccinated and convalescent people or whether the state specifies this.