Germany’s leaders have set out new coronavirus regulations for the coming months, including abolishing free rapid testing to incentivise people to get vaccinated.
Widespread restrictions are likely to stay in place in an effort to tackle a growing case rate that is only expected to worsen in the coming weeks as holidaymakers return.
The most controversial rules apply to people who are not vaccinated. They will be expected to undergo tests as a condition for attending all manner of events, from indoor gatherings to restaurant visits to religious services.
The system of free rapid coronavirus testing, which has been widely available for months and has been used by Germans to get into venues such as theatres and football stadiums, is expected to be abolished from 11 October. After that, those who are unvaccinated – except for pregnant women, children or those advised against getting a vaccine on medical grounds – will have to pay for the tests. The hope is that people will no longer rely on the test system as a way of avoiding getting a vaccine.
Masks are also expected to remain obligatory in indoors spaces such as offices, schools, shops and on public transport.
The leaders of Germany’s 16 states, who met with the chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Tuesday to hammer out the new regulations, will reserve the right to tighten them further if the infection rate is deemed to be out of control.
Germany’s incidence rate for every 100,000 people over a seven-day period has almost doubled in the past three weeks, with one in 10 regions now registering a rate of more than 35.
It has led to concerns that another lockdown is looming, despite a lack of political will to impose one, not least with a federal election scheduled in six weeks.
The Bundestag is due to vote next month on whether “epidemic conditions” still apply in Germany, the legal basis on which the government is able to apply the strict measures currently in place, but which will expire on 11 September unless it is extended by MPs.
Critics of the decision to tighten current restrictions and to disadvantage those who have not taken up the offer of a vaccine have called it a “vaccine mandate by the back door”.
Among the most vocal opponents are the pro-business FDP party and the right wing populist AfD. One of the AfD’s leaders, Alice Weidel, on Tuesday accused the government of “threatening to split society”.
The government said the measures were necessary in order to protect vulnerable people and the unvaccinated. It said it would continue to adjust the regulations as the epidemic develops.
“The time for tighter measures for those who are not vaccinated will continue to be decided on by the federal government and the states,” a spokesperson said.
Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy leader of the FDP, accused the government of patronising ordinary citizens by suggesting they needed to be “protected from themselves”.
“The government is quite clearly dismissing the idea of aligning its measures with the interests of the public good, and instead is saying explicitly that citizens need to be protected from themselves,” he said. He added that Merkel’s coalition government “considered responsible citizens a risk factor who must if necessary be forced to do what’s good for them.”
Currently only 55% of Germans have received a full vaccination – including 80% of people older than 60 – with 62.5% having had one jab. For a country where the vaccine campaign got off to a sluggish start, it no longer compares as unfavourably to somewhere such as the UK – where the comparable rate is 59% and 70% – although the German figures still fall well short of the Merkel government’s stated goal for 85% of the population to have received a full vaccination by the end of the summer.
In addition to the hope that scrapping free testing will motivate people to get vaccinated, the government is also setting its store by teenagers, who have shown an unexpected willingness to take up the recent offer of jabs. So far, almost a quarter of 12- to 17-year-olds – more than one million people – have had one jab, according to Jens Spahn, the health minister.
Successful measures to increase vaccine uptake have included the offer of a free hotdog in the state of Thuringia, and the chance to combine shopping and a jab in three Ikea outlets in Berlin. The first 1,100 people who turn up for a jab this weekend at a conference centre in Freiburg will be offered free tickets for an SC Freiburg home game.
