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Schleswig-Holstein and Rhineland-Palatinate declare regional risk zones in Germany. But the rules that apply to tourists are not entirely understandable to many.
Anyone staying in certain districts of Berlin and wanting to take a vacation in Schleswig-Holstein or Rhineland-Palatinate is now subject to strict Crown requirements. For people arriving from risk areas within Germany, equally strict rules apply in the federal states as for those from a risk area abroad. However, the new measures have some drawbacks.
What applies to regional risk areas?
If there are more than 50 new infections per 100,000 residents within a week in a district, independent city, or subarea, this location is considered a corona risk area according to the Robert Koch Institute. At the moment (as of October 6, 2020) for Schleswig-Holstein, this affects the cities of Hamm and Remscheid, as well as the Berlin districts of Mitte, Neukölln, Tempelhof-Schöneberg and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
Anyone who has been in one of these areas for more than 48 hours must go into quarantine in Schleswig-Holstein, inform the responsible health department and can shorten the quarantine, for example, if there is a negative corona test that has no more than 48 hours. . However, the test is not free, unlike travelers from foreign risk areas.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, on the other hand, risk areas are listed that the Robert Koch Institute also lists in its daily status report on the coronavirus. In addition to the risk areas that Schleswig-Holstein has defined, this also includes the Vechta district.
Rhineland-Palatinate has decided to make quarantine mandatory for all people entering from risk areas in Germany and abroad. Therefore, anyone traveling to Rhineland-Palatinate from a region of risk within Germany is obliged to go into quarantine for 14 days immediately after entering the country. There are exceptions, for example if you are passing through or have a negative corona test that is not older than 48 hours.
Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer said: “It is important for the state government to find a solution that ensures that holidays in Rhineland-Palatinate remain safe and manageable in hotels and pensions.”
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, however, travelers from Hamm, Remscheid and Vechta must be quarantined, but not those from the four districts of Berlin. According to the Health Ministry, entry restrictions or quarantine for returnees only come into effect if Berlin, as a city-state, has more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. According to the latest calculations, the average value for Berlin is below 40. In some other federal states, instead of the quarantine rule, there is a ban on accommodation for travelers from risk areas in the interior of Germany.
Dear readers: Are you personally affected by regional regulations? Is it now more difficult for you to see your family, is your planned vacation trip in jeopardy, or has an absurd situation arisen? Email your story to us at [email protected]. We will publish a selection of the contributions, including the abbreviated name.
Criticism: some regulations are so absurd
In particular, the division of capital into risk areas and non-risk areas seems absurd to many. For example, Berliners who live in the Prenzlauer Berg district but work in Mitte or Neukölln wonder if they are actually at more risk than those who live in Neukölln, for example, but drive to work every day in a safe area. In addition, there is the question of control: how to check in Schleswig-Holstein or Rhineland-Palatinate if the tourist lives in Mitte, Neukölln, but perhaps in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow or Marzahn after all, or if he has stayed more than 48 hours in a place? Have?
In Mainz, too, the rule for travelers from risky areas seems strange, considering the fact that you will be in Frankfurt in no time and therefore in a city that, with a current incidence of 7 days of around 47 new infections, it could soon become a risk zone. For example, a hotelier from Mainz explains in “heute journal”: “We have decided for ourselves that we will send the guest to the airport, where they can also do a corona test at night. If they are not allowed to return at that time, we could stay in one of our sister hotels in Frankfurt. ” But: That doesn’t work either, because although there is currently no quarantine requirement in Hesse, there is a ban on accommodation for travelers from risk areas within Germany.
That’s what experts say about the new measures
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) is skeptical about the division into districts in the case of Berlin. “This is a big and dynamic city here. We all have doubts in different districts every day. I very much hope that there is an approach that relates to all of Berlin,” Spahn said in Berlin on Monday.
Therefore, the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Markus Söder (CSU), is calling for the most uniform quarantine rules possible in all federal states for travelers from the crown hotspots of the interior of Germany. Söder announced that there would be a change for the heads of state chancelleries on Wednesday. “A uniform regulation in Germany would certainly look good to me,” Söder emphasized. However, he noted that Bavarian Crown regulations already offer the possibility of issuing an accommodation ban for travelers to Corona hotspots, “unless you freely test yourself.”
Tourists on the Baltic Sea beach in Binz on the island of Rügen: Holidays in Germany are particularly popular during the corona pandemic. (Source: snapshot / imago images)
And furthermore: “There is much to be said about the application of this regulation from Schleswig-Holstein and Rhineland-Palatinate in Bavaria,” said Söder. However, an attempt must first be made to arrive at “reasonably binding language regulation at the national level”. “That would also be best for the citizens,” Söder emphasized, warning of a new “patchwork quilt.” “At this point there is an incredible amount of confusion and an incredible amount of uncertainty.”
The president of the state of the CDU of Hamburg, Christoph Ploß, also warned in the “Spiegel”: Such a patchwork quilt in Germany would only add to the confusion and hardly contain the infection rate. “Who is supposed to control everything effectively if, for example, a district in a major German city is a risk area, but the neighboring district is not? Therefore, I do not believe in this regulation.”
According to the “Neuer Osnabrücker Zeitung”, Lower Saxony’s Minister of Health, Carola Reimann, sees it in a similar way. She assured the newspaper that her country was not considering a ban on spending the night for people from risk areas in the interior of Germany. Such regulations are “practically impossible to implement or even control,” said the SPD politician.
How will the new rules be controlled?
“The responsibility for complying with the quarantine obligation lies with the people coming from the risk zone,” said the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer. “Violations against this are subject to fines. Hoteliers protect themselves by providing their guests with a self-assessment. We were in an exchange about this with the municipal umbrella organizations, Rheinland-Pfalz Tourismus GmbH, the hotel and restaurant association DEHOGA Rheinland-Pfalz and the chambers of industry and commerce.
Visitors at the entrance to Eltz Castle in Rhineland-Palatinate: Due to crown regulations, only a few guests are allowed. Now there are also strict entry rules. (Source: Friedrich Stark / imago images)
Schleswig-Holstein maintains it similarly: people entering the federal state are not controlled, and must comply with Section 1 (2) of the Ordinance on the fight against coronavirus, government spokesman Eugen Witte told the portal of news “Watson”: “These regulations should be implemented Prohibitions mainly on the responsibility of citizens and in a subordinate way through the sovereign action of the competent authorities.” On the state government website, however, it also says: “There are random checks (eg at the Danish border). A fine may be imposed if the regulations are not complied with.”
Medicine Dr. Ute Teichert, federal president of the Public Health Service Doctors, for her part, is surprised by the new regulations: “I myself am surprised by the news. The health authorities have nothing to do with the implementation of the new standard. They know how this should be monitored. ” Not us, in the Crown Protection Ordinance there are no special instructions for health authorities. “
What are the penalties?
From Schleswig-Holstein it is said that fines of up to 10,000 euros are possible for infractions of the quarantine regulation. “For example, if you violate the 14-day quarantine rule in your own home or other suitable accommodation when entering or returning from a risk area.”
It also says: “If you do not go directly home or other suitable accommodation on your inbound or outbound journey from a risk area, you face a fine of up to 3,000 euros. A fine of up to 5,000 euros may be imposed if you are in spite of of the Quarantine Regulations received after entering or returning from a visit to a risk area, up to 2,000 euros if you do not inform the responsible health department “.
Infringements are a bit “cheaper” in Rhineland-Palatinate. The country’s fine catalog lists, for example, a fine of 250 euros if travelers do not go directly to quarantine. A violation of the quarantine obligation costs up to 1,000 euros, the same applies to failure to notify the responsible health department.
