Local Governments Call for Consistent COVID-19 Regulations for Autumn Season
Germany has adopted a new traffic light system to assess the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic situation across the country. This uniform approach, agreed upon by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Olaf Scholz, and state premiers in late 2021, uses hospitalization incidence as a key metric.
The system classifies the pandemic into three levels – green, yellow, and red – similar to a traffic light, based on the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period.
Key features of the system include:
- If hospitalizations exceed 3 per 100,000, public leisure facilities operate under the "2G" rule, allowing access only for vaccinated and recovered individuals.
- If hospitalizations exceed 6 per 100,000, the "2G+" rule applies, which includes vaccinated/recovered individuals plus tested individuals.
- Above 9 per 100,000, more stringent measures such as contact restrictions are introduced.
This hospitalization-based approach aims to replace less reliable metrics, such as the seven-day incidence of new cases, with more actionable hospitalization incidences, better reflecting the healthcare burden.
However, the system has faced challenges, including delays in hospitalization data affecting real-time accuracy. Despite these challenges, it represents a concerted effort to establish uniform pandemic measures across Germany’s federal states and to move beyond fragmented regional approaches.
Recently, Gerd Landsberg, the managing director of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, proposed extending the epidemic situation of national significance. This extension, if approved, could provide a framework for decision-making during the election campaign. Landsberg also suggested a new system for assessing the pandemic situation, which would not primarily rely on incidence figures.
Landsberg emphasized the need for uniformity to make measures for citizens understandable and traceable. He proposed that, due to the higher risk potential, unvaccinated individuals could be excluded from large events during very high incidence figures.
The current epidemic situation of national significance is set to expire at the end of September. Landsberg proposed that the Bundestag extend the epidemic situation of national significance beyond September, in a special session as early as August.
As the pandemic continues to evolve, it remains uncertain how it will develop in the coming months and what new dangers may threaten. However, the hospitalization-based traffic light system, along with Landsberg's proposed extensions and new assessment systems, aim to provide a clear and actionable approach to managing the pandemic in Germany.
- The traffic light system, implemented in Germany to assess the COVID-19 pandemic situation, aims to replace less reliable metrics like the seven-day incidence of new cases with more actionable hospitalization incidences.
- Gerd Landsberg, the managing director of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, has suggested a new system for assessing the pandemic situation, which would not primarily rely on incidence figures.
- In a proposed extension to the current epidemic situation of national significance, Landsberg suggests that unvaccinated individuals could be excluded from large events during very high incidence figures.
