The most effective, cheapest and easiest way to contain high incidences of corona is to wear an FFP-2 mask.

All virologists agree on that.

In the draft of the new infection protection law of the traffic light government, however, under pressure from the FDP, a mask requirement as “basic protection” to contain the virus is not provided for and the identification of corona hotspots with stricter measures for the federal states is made significantly more difficult.

Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and many other federal states would have liked to see masks as basic protection without having to meet certain criteria.

Ruediger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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However, the draft law formulates two conditions that must be met in order for infection control measures to be tightened.

The draft law by the SPD, Greens and FDP states: There is a “concrete danger of a dynamically spreading infection situation” if the spread of a virus variant of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is detected in the respective regional authority that has “a significantly higher pathogenicity”. or if, in view of a “high number of new infections”, there is a risk of hospital capacity in the respective local authority being overloaded.

The "Absolute Minimum"

Despite very high incidences, both of these conditions are not met in the current situation for most countries: In Baden-Württemberg, for example, the hospitals have 5,000 beds available for corona patients, 1,800 ward beds and around 250 intensive care beds are occupied.

Also, no more pathogenic mutant is spreading at the moment.

Nevertheless, doctors and politicians still consider effective preventive measures to be important.

From the point of view of the green-black state government, neither the transitional regulation until April 2 nor the future designation of corona hotspots can be seriously justified with the current wording of the law.

The reference to regional authorities is also problematic - because what does that mean when a state parliament decides on measures for the entire country, but there is a stronger incidence of infection in individual parts of the country?

Some states, including Baden-Württemberg, are therefore making use of the possibility of a transitional regulation and are extending the mask requirement in schools and other indoor public spaces until April 2nd.

The green-black government also wants to use the hotspot regulation and continue to adhere to the 3-G rule for the catering trade.

The deputy prime minister of Baden-Württemberg, Thomas Strobl (CDU), announced this on Tuesday: "We consider this to be absolutely necessary, we have the highest number of infections since the pandemic began two years ago," said Strobl, who announced the corona virus on Tuesday sick Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens).

With regard to the requirements that would have to be met in the future in order to designate a hotspot zone, the CDU politician said: “It is a weakness that we no longer proceed according to the occupancy of intensive care beds or the number of infections, but rather independently of the federal government’s figures.

That means the federal government is flying blind without an autopilot and the federal states are on board the plane.”

In Berlin, the two governing parties, the SPD and the Greens, emphasize the compromise nature of the new law.

The Federal Ministry of Health, led by Karl Lauterbach (SPD), speaks of a “total work of art” and admits that one would have liked the mask requirement to be a basic protection measure.

There is also clear criticism of the draft from the Green parliamentary group.

The deputy leader of the parliamentary group, Maria Klein-Schmeink, told the FAZ that the current draft was the "absolute minimum" of what was possible from her group's point of view.

"Neither smart nor forward-thinking"

“In the sense of a forward-looking policy, we would have wished for significantly more options.

We do not think it is wise or forward-looking policy that wearing masks in public indoor spaces could not be anchored as a general basic measure.

According to all experts, it is the simplest and most effective protective measure of all," said Klein-Schmeink.

Simply pointing to the people's personal responsibility, as the FDP is doing, is not enough.

After all, the green faction was able to achieve improvements to protect vulnerable people.

This means the continuation of the mask requirement in medical practices and in the emergency services.

In the green-led state government in Baden-Württemberg, the technical quality and unclear wording of the draft law are also met with criticism - for example that the state parliaments could designate a hotspot zone if a "concrete risk of a dynamically spreading infection situation" could be identified.

In case of doubt, the state constitutional courts will later have to decide what constitutes this.