Overview of Corona rules for the fall: exceptions to the mask requirement

Created: 08/12/2022, 21:44

The mask requirement should come back from October.

© Bernd Wüstneck / dpa

On Friday, Minister of Health Lauterbach again presented corona measures for the fall.

These rules could apply from October 1st.

Berlin – It is summer, there are still holidays in many federal states and yet Germany has to prepare for the next Corona fall.

"If you want to be well prepared, you have to gamble," said Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach on Friday in a press conference on the measures for the fall.

The Minister of Health's proposals for the upcoming measures at a glance.

Lauterbach already presented his seven-point plan for the Corona autumn in June.

In addition to vaccinations and corona tests, it also deals with the Infection Protection Act, which expires in September.

Lauterbach therefore presented a new set of rules on Friday (August 12).

Nationwide innovation in corona measures: exceptions to the mask requirement

The planned Corona course can be divided into three stages: The first stage will take effect from October 1st.

On the one hand, there should then be uniform measures nationwide, for example a mask or test requirement in nursing homes and hospitals.

The mask requirement in airplanes and rail traffic also remains in place.

What is new, however, is that people who have just been vaccinated, who have recovered or who have been tested can be exempted from the obligation to wear a mask from October 1st - this also applies to country-specific regulations on the obligation to wear a mask.

The mask should not be mandatory if you have been vaccinated in the three months before. 

Country-specific measures: Mask requirement indoors

In the second stage, the federal states themselves can order an additional mask or test obligation.

From October 1st, the countries could then introduce a mask requirement regardless of indoor incidences.

But you don't have to do this, explained Lauterbach.

This applies, for example, to local public transport, but also to "publicly accessible interiors" such as restaurants, sporting or cultural events.

Depending on the incidence, compulsory testing and masks could be reintroduced in schools.

However, the SPD politician continued to rule out school closures.

A lockdown is also no longer provided for in the draft.

Level three: Measures in the event of a specific load on the critical infrastructure

If the seven-day incidence is particularly high or if the clinics are at risk of being overloaded, the federal states can take even stricter measures.

Then, for example, a mask requirement could be reintroduced at indoor and outdoor events if a distance of 1.5 meters cannot be maintained.

In addition, hygiene concepts or upper limits for persons can again be demanded by organizers.

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The federal government is expected to give the go-ahead for the proposal on August 24th.

Next week it should be further coordinated with the countries.

But he is not set in stone.

The Bundestag and Bundesrat should then decide on the new set of rules in September.