Your comment in the Handelsblatt: Do the current corona decisions go far enough – or far too far?

“Gastronomy is a problem area. You often sit there for hours without a mask,” said Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach and thus established the nationwide 2G-plus rule for gastronomy. The federal and state governments had agreed on these and other corona restrictions last week .

It’s another setback for the catering industry. Many

innkeepers fear that the already burdened sales will collapse even further . Some industry representatives would even prefer a lockdown to the new measure.

But politicians felt compelled to initiate further measures to curb the fourth corona wave, which was mainly driven by Omikron. In addition to the 2G-plus rule in gastronomy, the federal and state governments have agreed on these measures, among other things:

• Boosted people (as well as newly vaccinated or recovered) who have had contact with an infected person must no longer in quarantine.
For everyone else, isolation and quarantine end after ten days. Contact persons and infected people can test themselves after seven days with a PCR or rapid test (with proof).

Furthermore, private gatherings of vaccinated and recovered are allowed with a maximum of ten people. In the case of unvaccinated people, only members of their own household and a maximum of two people from another household may meet.

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We are interested in your opinion: Do the new measures go far enough – or far too far? Is the 2G-plus rule in gastronomy possibly the death knell for many restaurateurs? Or is it the right tool to break the fourth wave and restore economic normality?

Can a shorter quarantine really prevent staff shortages, especially in critical facilities? Which measures would you prefer to avoid record incidences? Write us your opinion in five sentences to . We will publish selected articles with attribution on Thursday in print and online.

The countries had agreed on the shortened quarantine and isolation last week, above all, so that public life, in particular the critical infrastructure with hospitals, fire brigades and police collapses. Because it is expected that the omicron variant will lead to high numbers of infections and therefore significantly more people than contact persons will have to be quarantined.

But not everyone sees this measure as a good compromise. Susanne Johna, chairwoman of the Marburg Association, told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that the exemption from quarantine for newly vaccinated or recovered contact persons was “medically questionable”. A person who has recovered from the Delta variant is not immune to the Omicron variant.

The federal states led by the CDU and CSU also criticize the new resolutions. In a specially prepared paper, they demand that the federal government should determine the epidemic situation again. This can serve as the legal basis for stricter contact restrictions such as business and school closures. Some scientists also consider further contact reductions to be necessary.

Whether the restrictions will work or not, whether they are too lax or too strict, only time will tell. In any case, Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach already interpreted his view on Sunday evening in the ARD program “Report from Berlin”. The decisions taken are “a very important step forward”, but they would not be enough to defeat Omicron.

If you would like to have your say on this topic in the Handelsblatt, write us a comment, either by e-mail to
or on Instagram under @handelsblatt.

Recently, the Handelsblatt readership debated the EU Commission’s plans to classify nuclear power and natural gas as sustainable. You can find out which opinions were represented here read .