Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

FRANKFURT

Supermarkets in German state of Hesse can now block entry to the unvaccinated

Supermarkets in Frankfurt and the surrounding region can now implement rules that only allow vaccinated and Covid-recovered people onto their premises.

Published: 15 October 2021 10:26 CEST
A food market in Frankfurt.
A food market in Frankfurt. Photo: dpa | Frank Rumpenhorst

The new Covid health pass entry rules announced by the central state of Hesse have upped the pressure on the unvaccinated by allowing all shops to implement the so-called 2G rule at their doors.

The 2G rule refers to public places being given the option to allow entry only to vaccinated (geimpft in German) or people who’ve recovered from Covid (genesen). and has so far been allowed in half of Germany’s states for certain public places like bars, restaurants, nightclubs and cinemas.

The government in Hesse said that it had taken the decision to go a step further and allow shops to bar entry to the unvaccinated “at the request of the sector”.

Implementing 2G rules allows shops to drop mask-wearing and social distancing rules.

“We expect that this option will only be used on some days and that businesses which cater to everyday needs will not make use of it,” state leader Volker Bouffier said on Tuesday.

The decision comes after a Frankfurt court ruled in favour of a barbecue utensil store which had launched a legal objection to the fact that it could not implement 2G rules on its premises.

The court said in its ruling earlier in October that it had “considerable legal reservations about the exclusion of sales outlets and similar establishments from the so-called 2G rule”.

READ MORE: Should retailers in Germany be allowed to exclude unvaccinated people from entry?

2G has proved controversial, with many people complaining that it excludes people who can’t vaccinated and that it has the potential to widen societal divisions over the pandemic response.

Many locations in the hospitality and entertainment sector have stuck to a 3G rule, which allows people to enter if they can show a negative Covid-19 test.

Throughout the pandemic, German authorities have excluded supermarkets and other grocers from most restrictions, such as lockdowns and entry rules, in order to ensure that everyone has continued access to essential goods.

With several million German adults still to be vaccinated as the winter draws near, authorities have sought to up the pressure on them by making access to some parts of public life more difficult or costly.

Eight federal states have allowed businesses and event organisers to adopt the so-called 2G option – that is to allow entry only to the vaccinated (geimpft) and people who’ve recovered from Covid-19 (genesen) – and not unvaccinated people who’ve tested (getestet) negatively for Covid.

Nationwide, the negative lateral flow test that is necessary to be allowed entry as an unvaccinated person is no longer free. The government has said that this decision was taken in order to reduce the tax burden of pandemic measures.

The Local approached the Hesse government for comment.

READ ALSO: Who can still get free Covid tests in Germany?

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

COVID-19 RULES

End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden’s Covid laws really means

With the expiry of Sweden's two temporary Covid-19 laws, the downgrading of the virus's threat classification, and the end of the last travel restrictions, April, officially at least, marks the end of the pandemic. We explain what it means.

Published: 1 April 2022 13:07 CEST
End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden's Covid laws really means

What are the two laws which expire on April 1st? 

Sweden’s parliament voted last week to let the two temporary laws put in place to battle the Covid-19 pandemic expire on April 1st.

The first law is the so-called Covid-19 law, or “the law on special restrictions to limit the spread of the Covid-19 illness”, which was used during the pandemic to temporarily empower the authorities to limit the number of visitors to shops, gyms, and sports facilities. It also gave the government power to limit the number of people who could gather in public places like parks and beaches. 

The second law was the “law on temporary restrictions at serving places”. This gave the authorities, among other things, the power to limit opening times, and force bars and restaurants to only serve seated customers.  

What impact will their expiry have? 

The immediate impact on life in Sweden will be close to zero, as the restrictions imposed on the back of these two laws were lifted months ago. But it does means that if the government does end up wanting to bring back these infection control measures, it will have to pass new versions of the laws before doing so. 

How is the classification of Covid-19 changing? 

The government decided at the start of February that it would stop classifying Covid-19 both as a “critical threat to society” and “a disease that’s dangerous to the public” on April 1st.

These classifications empowered the government under the infectious diseases law that existed in Sweden before the pandemic to impose health checks on inbound passengers, place people in quarantine, and ban people from entering certain areas, among other measures. 

What impact will this change have? 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a disease that’s dangerous to the public”, or an allmänfarlig sjukdom, people who suspect they have caught the virus, are no longer expected to visit a doctor or get tested, and they cannot be ordered to get tested by a court on the recommendation of an infectious diseases doctor. People with the virus can also no longer be required to aid with contact tracing or to go into quarantine. 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a critical threat to society”, or samhällsfarlig, the government can no longer order health checks at border posts, quarantine, or ban people from certain areas. 

The end of Sweden’s last remaining Covid-19 travel restrictions

Sweden’s last remaining travel restriction, the entry ban for non-EU arrivals, expired on March 31st.  This means that from April 1st, Sweden’s travel rules return to how they were before the Covid-19 pandemic began. 

No one will be required to show a vaccination or test certificate to enter the country, and no one will be barred from entering the country because their home country or departure country is not deemed to have a sufficiently good vaccination program or infection control measures. 

Does that mean the pandemic is over? 

Not as such. Infection rates are actually rising across Europe on the back of yet another version of the omicron variant. 

“There is still a pandemic going on and we all need to make sure that we live with it in a balanced way,” the Public Health Agency’s director-general, Karin Tegmark Wisell, told SVT. 

Her colleague Sara Byfors told TT that this included following the “fundamental recommendation to stay home if you are sick, so you don’t spread Covid-19 or any other diseases”. 

SHOW COMMENTS