Baden-Württemberg will loosen the corona rules slightly from Friday

Created: 2022-01-26Updated: 2022-01-26 10:58 am

Winfried Kretschmann puts on a mask after a government press conference.

© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

After massive pressure from the judiciary, Kretschmann takes the first steps towards opening up.

The country returns to the normal alert level - despite Omicron.

Clubs, discos and exhibition halls remain closed.

Stuttgart – The state of Baden-Württemberg is slightly relaxing its corona rules despite the rising omicron wave.

The 3G rule will apply in retail from this Friday, and those who have not been vaccinated can then shop again with an up-to-date test.

Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) announced on Wednesday in Stuttgart that there would also be a slight opening in the catering trade.

With the return to the normal alarm level called for by the judiciary, 2G is once again in force indoors in restaurants.

Previously, those who had been vaccinated and those who had recovered had to show a test (2G plus).

More spectators are allowed to attend major sporting and cultural events.

However, a maximum of 6,000 visitors are allowed in the stadium.

Because of the rapid spread of the Omikron variant, Kretschmann does not want to give the all-clear.

It is therefore irresponsible to reopen clubs and discotheques.

"We're playing it safe at this point," said Kretschmann.

Actually, the 2G rule would have applied if the alarm level had returned.

That means that vaccinated and recovered people could have gone to clubs and discos.

With the new Corona regulation, which will be announced on Thursday and will come into force on Friday, trade fair events will also remain prohibited.

Here, too, the government tightened the rules in the normal alert level.

The background is that the government made up of the Greens and the CDU must put the regular tier system back into force.

Most recently, she had frozen alert level II with severe restrictions because of Omicron.

However, the Administrative Court (VGH) considers this procedure to be unlawful.

Kretschmann confirmed that although Omikron causes less severe disease progression, it is significantly more contagious.

The risk of hospitals being overburdened is still present, even if the number of intensive care beds occupied by Covid patients has recently fallen significantly.

Up to 6,000 spectators are again allowed in the football stadium at the normal alert level if the organizer applies the 2G plus rule.

This means that visitors must be vaccinated or recovered and also tested.

If the organizers want to work with the 2G rule, there is an upper limit of 3000 viewers.

At cultural events such as concerts, 3000 visitors are allowed in closed rooms - on condition that 2G plus is used at the entrance.

With 2G, the upper limit is 1500. For all events, a maximum of half of the capacities may be used.

This also applies to carnival celebrations.

"Unfortunately, we have to prohibit outdoor moves," said Kretschmann.

The rules for private meetings remained unchanged.

This means that the unvaccinated must comply with contact restrictions.

A household may meet with a maximum of two other people.

There is a tightening of the mask requirement in buses and trains.

There will be an obligation to wear FFP2 masks from Friday.

In mid-January, Grün-Schwarz retained alarm level II in the Corona Ordinance out of concern for Omikron, thereby overriding the limit values ​​​​for the burden on hospitals by the end of January.

Because the burden on hospitals has decreased - relatively speaking - in the past few weeks, the government actually has to relax the measures a bit.

The VGH also insists on this.

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The corona incidence has risen sharply to over 800 in the past few days because of Omicron.

However, the number of Covid 19 patients in intensive care units has fallen to 286.

The nationwide hospitalization incidence was last at 4.8.

It indicates how many corona infected people are taken to hospitals within a week per 100,000 inhabitants.

Kretschmann explained that with the hospitalization rate of over 3.0, the requirement for the alarm level was met - even if the upper limit of intensive care beds of 390 was not reached.

In the future, however, a new rule will apply to reaching alert level II: This will only be called out if both limit values ​​​​are exceeded.

That means the hospitalization rate would have to rise above 6 and there would have to be more than 450 Covid patients in intensive care units.

"This link is new," said the head of government.

dpa