Düsseldorf/Berlin (dpa/lnw) - North Rhine-Westphalia wants to coordinate its corona strategy for autumn together with the other federal states. The NRW Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday at the request of the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf that the conference of health ministers on August 9 should also be used for this purpose. The house of Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) is currently examining the intended changes in the draft of the Federal Infection Protection Act.
According to the draft previously published in Berlin, the federal states should be allowed to impose mask requirements again from October to protect against a corona wave in autumn. A mask requirement on buses, trains and planes should therefore continue to apply nationwide, as well as a new mask and test requirement in hospitals and care facilities.
The federal states should decide for themselves whether they also require masks in publicly accessible indoor areas. In restaurants and at cultural and sporting events, however, there should be exceptions for tested, newly vaccinated and recently recovered people.
According to the proposal by the Federal Ministries of Health and Justice, the federal states should also be given the opportunity to prescribe tests in schools, daycare centers and facilities for accommodating asylum seekers. A mask requirement in school is only planned if otherwise no regulated face-to-face lessons would be possible - and then only from the fifth school year. Radical measures such as school and company closures are no longer an option, said Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP).
Next, the federal cabinet will deal with the proposals. The Bundestag is then to decide on the new Corona rules from October. The Baden-Württemberg Health Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) has already criticized: "We would have hoped for more from the draft, since the decisive means, namely an extensive toolbox for the federal states, is not provided."
