Coronavirus regulations on the Stuttgart Max Planck campus
last update: March 24, 2022
The number of cases of new Covid-19 infections continues to be very high and is currently rising steadily. Nevertheless, the legal basis for infection protection in the workplace as well as in the private and public sectors has changed as of last weekend. A whole series of restrictions were weakened or lifted. The Federal Government is now increasingly relying on each and every individual to act responsibly. An amended Corona Ordinance has been in force in Baden-Württemberg since Saturday, March 19, 2022, making use of a transition phase of the new federal Infection Protection Act until April 2, 2022. The updated SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Health and Safety Regulation (SARS-CoV-2-Arbeitsschutzverordnung) by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs came into force on March 20, 2022, scheduled to expire on 25 May 2022.
The updated regulations imply the following changes for the Corona-rules at our institute:
1. Employers no longer need to register the status of an employee, whether he or she is recovered, vaccinated or unvaccinated (3G regulation at the workplace). This means we no longer check the 3G status and access to our building is again granted to all employees.
If you find your house access card is not working at the door, please go see Andreas Holzmüller’s office in Tübingen to have the restriction on your card removed. In Stuttgart, we ask employees to go to see Mr Albrecht from the Key Service if you have problems with building access.
2. Working from home is no longer mandatory. However, as it is still important to reduce operationally-related contact with people as well as the simultaneous use of indoor rooms by several people, working from home when possible still plays an important role in containing the spread of the virus. In order to enable working from home after the end of the transition phase on April 2, the institute management and the works council have recently closed an institute agreement on mobile working. Applications for mobile working can be made within the framework of this institute agreement (only for MPI-IS). Please speak to your supervisor.
3. Until April 2, for events with more than 5 external participants or for informal gatherings, submitting a hygiene concept is still required, and the 3G rule still applies. There is no need to submit a hygiene concept for work-related internal events. All capacity limits are lifted. When hosting or organizing events, we continue ask to carefully assess the necessity of on-site meetings given the current development of the pandemic.
The following rules will remain in place:
· Employees and guests must continue to wear masks wherever the minimum distance of 1.5m cannot be kept to the next person inside a room. Rooms should be ventilated regularly. And employees must please continue to wear masks in communal areas such as the hallways, lounge areas, communal kitchens, toilets and the way to the canteen.
· We recommend wearing FFP2 masks instead of medical masks wherever possible, but you can also choose to wear a hygiene mask. FFP2 masks should not be worn for more than 75 minutes at a time. After that, it is recommended to take a mask-free break of approx. 30 minutes, or to switch to a medical mask.
· We will continue to offer two self-tests per week as well as medical masks to our employees.
· For attending external events (e.g. conferences, lectures, etc.) and for undertaking business trips, all employees are advised to ensure that their immunity status is as high as possible (e.g. triple vaccinated or double vaccinated + recovered).
If you have symptoms similar to those of Coronavirus, it is prohibited to come to campus.
You should inform your supervisor and Linda Behringer (MPI-IS) and Michael Eppard (MPI-FKF) if you have a Corona rapid test or a PCR test with a positive result.