In the future, the berlin corona warning light will take into account how many people need to be treated in hospital after a covid illness. This was decided by the senate on tuesday.
The aim was to further develop the traffic lights that berlin had already introduced in may 2020, said health senator dilek kalayci (SPD). According to the senate’s resolution, three indicators will remain in place.
The new indicator replaces the R-value, which shows how many others an infected person infects on average. As before, the percentage of bed occupancy by covid patients in intensive care units and the so-called seven-day incidence are also taken into account. "We see red and yellow lines as warning signals. But there is no automatism," said kalayci. "In the yellow area we are more attentive, in the red area there is a need for action."Then the senate has to discuss, for example, whether relaxations of corona restrictions should be revoked.
The senate has also decided that children and young people in berlin will only have to spend five days in quarantine instead of 14 if they have had close contact with schoolmates who have tested positive. The same applies to kindergarten children, kalayci explained.
Another change affects clubs and discotheques: in berlin, they are once again allowed to open for vaccinated and recovered persons, and masks are no longer compulsory in the interior rooms. However, a negative corona test of the guests is not enough, as kalayci explained. Ten days ago, the administrative court had ruled that commercial dance events in closed rooms, which are aimed exclusively at vaccinated and recovering persons, should be permitted (az.: VG 14 L 467/21).