The Federal Chancellor and the heads of government of the federal states take the following decision:
The exponential rise in the number of infections in Germany at the beginning of March made it clear what a high infection potential the SARS-Cov2 virus has. Nevertheless, Germany has succeeded in significantly reducing the number of new infections every day.
Even after the first opening measures have been carried out gradually since April 20, the number of new infections has remained low. As of today, no renewed infection dynamics are discernible. This is due in particular to the fact that the citizens with the highest degree of personal responsibility have complied with the ban on contact as well as the hygiene and distance rules.
That is why the federal government and the federal states are now taking a significant further step towards opening up, in particular to safeguard the educational opportunities of young people, to further limit the economic damage caused by the containment of the virus, and to take the freedom-restricting measures for the citizens where absolutely necessary limit. The federal and state governments have thus jointly defined the path to gradual opening. If, in view of this second major opening step, the newly infected numbers remain low, the federal states are to take the remaining steps on their own responsibility against the background of country-specific peculiarities and the respective infection process on the basis of hygiene and distance concepts of the respective ministerial conferences.
With every additional degree of opening, it becomes all the more important that distance and hygiene rules are consistently adhered to, because the increasing number of contacts increases the risk of new infection chains developing. These have to be recognized and interrupted quickly. The public health service makes a key contribution to this, for which the federal government and the federal states thank all employees in the health services and the many helpers in contact tracking. In addition to the follow-up of contacts by the public health service, if regional high infection dynamics develop, the timely introduction of local restrictions plays a major role in preventing the spread of infection dynamics across Germany and thus the reintroduction of Germany-wide restrictions.
Against this background, the Chancellor and the
heads of government of the federal states agree :
1. The joint resolutions as well as the accompanying ChefBK / CdS resolutions as well as the decisions of the Corona Cabinet remain valid, unless otherwise specified in the following.
2. The most important measure, especially in view of the openings, remains for a long time to keep your distance. That is why it remains crucial that citizens keep a minimum distance of 1.5 meters in public.
This measure is supplemented by a mask requirement in certain public areas. The contact restrictions should basically continue until June 5. In view of the low number of infections, however, living in public spaces should not only be allowed alone, with the relatives of your own household or with another person, but also with the people of another household. Decisions already made remain unaffected.
3. Especially when far-reaching openings have taken place, the risk of dynamic development increases. At the beginning of the pandemic, this was often promoted by local events and then spread further. For this reason, the federal and state governments are continuing to develop support measures that can be called up quickly for particularly affected areas, and continue to coordinate closely between the crisis teams of the federal and state governments.
From a certain relevance, a regional dynamic with high numbers of new infections and a rapid increase in the infection rate must be reacted to on site with restrictions.
For this reason, the federal states will ensure that in counties or independent cities with a cumulative number of more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, a consistent restriction concept with the involvement of the responsible state authorities is implemented immediately within the last 7 days.
The state health authorities inform the Robert Koch Institute about this. In the case of a localized and clearly delimitable infection event, for example in a facility, this restriction concept can only include this facility. In the event of a distributed regional outbreak and unclear infection chains, general restrictions must be reintroduced regionally.
These measures must be maintained until this
value falls below at least 7 days. In addition, restrictions on unnecessary mobility into and out of the particularly affected areas are required at the latest when the number continues to increase and there is no certainty that the infection chains have already been interrupted comprehensively.
4. The use of digital “contact tracing” is an important measure to support the quick and complete tracking of contacts. In the meantime, the federal government has decided to develop a decentralized approach and to enable the use of this app by the citizens according to the principle of “double voluntariness”. This means that the European and German data protection rules are strictly observed and only epidemiologically relevant contacts from the last three weeks are saved anonymously only on the user’s mobile phone without recording the movement profile. In addition, the use of the app should not only be voluntary, but also a possible transfer of data to the RKI to optimize the app and for epidemiological research should only take place voluntarily. If a citizen does not release this data, this has no negative impact on the app’s usage options.
The app is provided transparently “open source”. As soon as a widely applicable application software (app) is available, it will be important that large sections of the population use this opportunity to quickly find out when they have had contact with an infected person so that they can react quickly to it. The federal and state governments will call for this.
5. The schools should enable all pupils to be trained step by step, taking appropriate hygiene measures or observing distance rules. These relate to the lessons as well as the break events and the school transport.
The resumption of teaching in the form of partial face-to-face teaching for schoolchildren has begun and is to be continued in further steps in accordance with the decision of the Conference of Ministers of Education under the responsibility of the federal states. The aim is that, depending on the infection process until the summer holidays, every student can go to school once. At the same time, digital teaching concepts and offers are to be further developed.
6. In accordance with the decision of the youth ministerial conference on April 27, 2020, childcare will be introduced in all federal states by a flexible and gradual expansion of emergency care at the latest from May 11th. This ensures that every child at the transition to school can visit the day care center again before the end of their day in the summer vacation. The details regulate the countries.
7. For hospitals, nursing homes, senior and disabled facilities, the federal and state governments have already agreed that special protective measures will be taken with the help of external experts in accordance with the respective local circumstances and in the respective institutions. It was emphasized that it must also be taken into account that the relevant regulations must not lead to complete social isolation of those affected. Against this background of the low number of infections, it is now decided that a rule should be included in all concepts or the general decrees issued regarding the contact restrictions with regard to these facilities, which enables every patient / resident of such a facility to have a return visit by a defined person ,
8. Also in the pandemic, we want to make safe work as possible as possible in industry and medium-sized companies. Employers have a special responsibility for their employees to protect them from infections.
Infection chains that arise in the company can be identified quickly. That is why the federal and state governments have already decided that every company in Germany must implement a hygiene concept based on an adapted risk assessment and company pandemic planning. This remains current. We continue to live in the pandemic, which is why unnecessary contacts in the workforce and with customers must be avoided, general hygiene measures implemented and the risk of infection in the case of necessary contacts minimized through special hygiene and protective measures.
Companies continue to be encouraged to do homework wherever feasible. The authorities responsible for occupational health and safety and the accident insurance institutions advise the companies and carry out controls. The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has presented a concept with the essential rules together with the social partners, the federal states and the DGUV.
9. All shops can reopen under hygiene, control of access and avoiding queues. It is important that a maximum number of people (customers and staff) is specified in relation to the sales area, which on the one hand serves to reduce the risk of infection in the shops by ensuring distances, but also aims to increase public traffic in public and public transport as a whole limit.
10. Sports and training activities in mass and leisure sports under the open sky are permitted again under the conditions provided for in the decision of the sports ministers of the federal states for gradual re-entry into training and competition operations.
11. The special position of professional athletes requires – also legally – a separate assessment. The Chancellor and the heads of government of the federal states consider the continuation of play in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga to be justifiable for the 36 clubs eligible to start there at their expense from the second half of May. The DFL determines the specific match dates. The statements of the BMAS, BMG and BMI on the protection concept of the DFL as well as the provisions of the decision of the sports ministers of the federal states from April 28, 2020 must be taken into account. A quarantine measure, possibly in the form of a training camp, must precede the start of the game, as provided for in the tested concept. In the event of any tests that may be necessary for gaming operations, it must be ensured that test requirements registered in the healthcare system are treated with priority at all times. The DFB is asked to develop sustainable future concepts for the other leagues.
12. The federal states are responsible under the background of the respective infection and country-specific peculiarities about the gradual opening of the gastronomy and accommodation industry for tourist use (in particular hotels, pensions and holiday apartments) with
conditions based on common hygiene and distance concepts of the Decide conference of economic ministers.
13. The federal states will take responsibility
for the gradual opening of the theaters, operas, concert halls and cinemas , subject to the background of the respective infection and country-specific peculiarities, based on common hygiene and distance concepts of the culture minister conference.
14. The federal states will decide on their own responsibility against the background of the respective infection and country-specific peculiarities about the gradual opening of the following remaining areas with conditions based on common hygiene and distance concepts of the respective ministerial conferences:
- Lectures at universities
- Transition of childcare to restricted regular operation according to the decision of the youth and family ministerial conference
- Adult education centers, music schools and other public and private educational institutions outside of school
- Bars, clubs and discos
- measure up
- Driving schools
- Service companies in the field of personal care such as cosmetic studios, massage practices, tattoo studios and similar companies
- Sports in all public and private indoor sports facilities, swimming pools and fun pools
- Gyms and similar establishments
- Operation of other sports and leisure facilities as well as the resumption of competitive and competitive sports
- Smaller public or private events or celebrations as well as non-festive events
- Amusement parks and leisure activity providers (indoor and outdoor)
- Amusement arcades, casinos, betting shops and similar establishments
- Prostitution centers, brothels and similar establishments
15. As the federal and state governments have already decided, major events such as folk festivals, larger sporting events with spectators, larger concerts, festivals, village, city, street, wine, shooting festivals or funfair
events are currently prohibited. Due to the still existing uncertainty of the infection, it can be assumed that this will remain the case until at least August 31
