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October 03, 2020 – 1:22 p.m. Watch
The regulation is already applied in four federal states
That shouldn’t have been clear to everyone: an internal Bundestag document now shows that traveling within Germany can have consequences for citizens too. From a memorandum from the Bundestag administration, to which RTL and ntv are exclusively available, it follows that in some federal states citizens must also be quarantined if they enter from a risk area within Germany. So far there has been talk of risk areas abroad.
The note in the file reads: “In four countries (Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein), the infection protection regulations as of October 1, 2020 establish the obligation to quarantine in home even if a person is from a risk area within Germany enters or returns from there to the respective country “.
Currently, four regions are affected
That means: if you live in Hamm, for example, and you want to go to the Baltic Sea coast in Schleswig-Holstein or Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the weekend, you have to be quarantined there. Or to put it another way: you better not go there. The regulation could also have reverse consequences: Anyone who has stayed in Hamm would have to be quarantined in all four federal states after their return.
Hamm currently has 94.4 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in 7 days, a value that is above the critical number of 50. The same applies to the town of Remscheid in North Rhine-Westphalia and the district of Rhön-Grabfeld in Bavaria. And for the Berlin-Mitte district. Therefore, the four regions are, by definition, what applies to other countries, as risk zones.
In Berlin, however, it is still unclear whether districts can be assessed individually. The Senate rejects it. And Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania also made RTL’s request clear: Berlin was seen as a complete city-state, not by district. All of Berlin is below the threshold of 50 new infections.
Countries regulate quarantine differently
According to the memorandum, the classification of risk areas is regulated differently in the federal states. “In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Rhineland-Palatinate a
German hinterland automatically as a risk zone as long as the rate of new infections by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus exceeds 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants within a period of seven days, according to the publications of the Robert Koch Institute. This now also includes the Berlin-Mitte district. ”
In Schleswig-Holstein and Berlin, an express classification as a risk area is required by the Ministry of Health or the responsible administration of the Senate. Schleswig-Holstein is classifying Berlin-Mitte as a risk zone. A spokesperson for the Kiel Health Ministry confirmed this to RTL. Travelers are encouraged to observe the quarantine rules, or better not to arrive.
Derogations for members of the Bundestag
The rules should not apply to politicians in the Bundestag, which is located in Berlin-Mitte. Schleswig-Holstein expressly excludes them if they return from Berlin-Mitte as part of their parliamentary job. Rhineland-Palatinate and the state of Berlin emphasize that people are excluded, “whose work for the maintenance” of the functionality
of the parliament, the government and the federal administration ‘is imperative. “
The situation in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is more difficult: there is only one option to be exempted from quarantine “if this is justified after weighing all the concerns involved.” This must be confirmed ex officio or by the responsible health authority. So for MPs like Philipp Amthor of the CDU, who has his constituency in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: you need to quickly contact the responsible authority. Because the week of sessions in the Bundestag ends today Friday, and most of the Members would like to go home for the weekend. Amthors’ office said in RTL’s request that it was unaware of the regulation until now.
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