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Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
The federal-state round is canceled, instead an expansion of the Infection Protection Act is pending: There should soon be nationwide regulations that apply in all districts.
The federal and state governments have agreed on this.
According to Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), there should be uniform nationwide regulations on curfews and school closings.
Corresponding requirements should be anchored in the new Infection Protection Act, which will be launched next week, said Scholz in Berlin.
The planned nationwide regulation on the Corona emergency brake should bring more "clarity and transparency" for the citizens, according to the SPD politician.
It is "right and reasonable that the rules apply nationwide in the future."
Accordingly, the curfews should apply from an incidence of 100 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants of a district.
In addition, distance teaching is to be reintroduced in schools - but only from an incidence value of 200. Below an incidence of 100, the existing resolutions of the Prime Minister's Conference should continue to apply and the states should thus retain their competence.
Scholz also spoke of introducing compulsory testing in companies.
Intensive care physicians urge a hurry
The federal government wants to initiate the corresponding draft law for the federal emergency brake next week in close agreement with the states and the Bundestag.
The federal and state governments agree on the change to the Infection Protection Act, said Scholz.
They worked on the regulations by mutual agreement.
However, it is not yet clear how quickly the change in the law can be implemented.
Germany's intensive care physicians are not very enthusiastic about the possible delays.
"This is a disappointing new situation," said Gernot Marx, President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (Divi).
He could only hope that instead of the canceled federal-state round, there would be alternative political decisions in the near future.
The Divi again called for an immediate hard lockdown of two to three weeks in order to reduce the number of new infections in the pandemic.
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