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Numerous restrictions have been put in place in the fight against Corona since November, but the number of new infections is not decreasing. Therefore, Leopoldina scientists recommend more drastic measures at the turn of the year.
The Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences requires extensive contact restrictions after Christmas. Holidays and the turn of the year should be used for a “strict lockdown” in order to quickly reduce significantly excessive new infections, according to a statement.
In a first step, compulsory schooling should be lifted from next Monday, December 14 until the Christmas holidays. The experience of countries like Ireland in dealing with the pandemic has shown that strict measures for a short period of time would contribute significantly to significantly reducing the number of infections and keeping them low. From December 24 to at least January 10, “public life throughout Germany should be practically inactive.”
Home office, whenever possible
In such a “hard lockdown”, all stores, except those for daily necessities with food, medicine and other necessary items, should close. The home office should be the rule whenever possible. Social contacts should be limited to a very limited group. The Christmas holidays in educational institutions and limited operations in companies and authorities now offer the opportunity to make significant progress in containing the pandemic.
When I was working from home, Union and SPD had recently agreed on a flat tax rate. With this, the coalition wants to support work-from-home teams, regardless of evidence from a separate study.
Recommended masks in class for all students.
Scientists promote an understanding of hard cuts. “The stricter measures also make sense from an economic perspective,” Leopoldina said. “While a tighter lockdown increases the loss of value added in the short term, it also shortens the period until the number of new infections has decreased so much that relaxation is possible.”
After January 10, Leopoldina recommends wearing a mask in school lessons for all grades in all federal states. In addition, uniform standards should be drafted across countries to alternate instruction from the secondary level. Long-term political agreement is also required on a set of clear, uniform, multi-level, national rules that apply to a certain number of cases per 100,000 residents, the scientists warned. A uniform and understandable procedure would make the measures transparent and plannable for both citizens and businesses.
Next federal-state meeting scheduled for January 4
Despite the closure of many facilities in a partial lockdown since the beginning of November, the figures remain at a high level, and in recent days they have risen again.
According to the participants, Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized in a video meeting of the Union parliamentary group on Monday that the measures taken so far will not detract from the high infection rates. The federal and state governments had recently decided to extend the partial lockdown until January 10, with the possible relaxation of contact restrictions from December 23 to January 1.
But precisely this relaxation during the holidays is off the table in some federal states. Saxony wants to impose a blockade on schools, kindergartens and many companies from next Monday. The state governments of Bavaria and Thuringia also see no signs of relaxation: the requirements there will not relax during Christmas.
