In the fight against Corona, the federal government is planning tough curfews and further restrictions on private contacts. This is what it says in the draft of the new federal infection protection law, which was submitted late Friday afternoon for coordination between the ministries involved.

Most recently, the Conference of Minister Presidents was canceled on Monday. Instead, the federal government now wants to amend the Infection Protection Act to tighten the lockdown centrally for the entire federal government.

According to the draft, the measures will come into force if the incidence in the county is above 100 for three days - they will then apply from the day after next. According to the plans, no one will be allowed to leave their homes from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., except to care for animals, for medical emergencies, for work-related reasons or to care for children, the elderly and the sick. The federal government is also to be allowed to issue further ordinances.

Private contacts are to be further restricted: Each household will be allowed to receive only one guest per day. Kindergartens and schools will only be allowed to receive children on site who are tested twice a week - and even that only as long as the incidence remains below 200. When kindergartens and schools close, emergency care will be limited to one-fifth of the children - whether they close because of incidence or lack of testing.

According to the draft, employers must expect a fine if they do not allow their employees to work from home where this would be possible. The draft does not include an obligation to test at the workplace. However, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) has already announced that he will discuss a regulation in the German government next week that would require employers to offer tests to their employees.

Dispute over seven-day incidence
At present, it is not yet clear how the draft will still be changed in the departmental vote. It will probably not remain completely unchanged before it goes to the Bundestag next week. Particularly controversial, according to reports, is whether all measures should be linked to one value, the seven-day incidence, which is not always reliably stated and loses significance as the vaccination campaign progresses. Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) had said that the law could be changed in one session week if necessary, "if everyone wants to".

The FDP member of parliament Oliver Luksic criticized the draft: "Massive encroachments on fundamental rights must not only hang on a statistical value of the RKI and the not always current reports of the health offices. The rising vaccination rate completely fade out is a mistake, nightly curfews are particularly disproportionate."