Status update of September 11, 2020

Dear employees and guests,

On June 22, the Tübingen campus crisis unit decided on adapted measures for all employees and guests, in line with the new state COVID-19 guidelines.

The crisis management team aims to increase work on campus in compliance with the SARS-CoV-2 occupational safety standard (German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs). Please clarify the nature and scope of any on-campus activities with your supervisors.

Employees whose tasks can be carried out effectively remotely should continue to work from home in consultation with their supervisors. In addition, working from home is still possible for employees who belong to risk groups or who lack adequate childcare. Please discuss your personal situation with your supervisor to determine what best meets your needs.

Please note that the wearing of face masks is still mandatory in the common areas of institute buildings and strongly recommended everywhere on campus, and social distancing measures (maintaining a safe distance of 1.5 meters) are still required.

• The maximum number of people present in laboratories at any given time must take these social distancing measures into account.
• For offices, a minimum space of 10m2 per person is required. Please make sure that desks are arranged in such a way that safe distances can be ensured, avoiding face-to-face seating, and that rooms are well ventilated.

Preferably, events and meetings should continue to be held virtually. However, meetings with internal and external participants, as well as experiments with human volunteers who are not Max Planck employees, may take place on campus under the following conditions:

• A person responsible for the event or experiment must be appointed.
• A hygiene concept that takes the number of participants into account must be submitted in good time to, and approved by, the Institute’s safety officer (Brigitte Walderich, Holger Fischer, Jörg Eisfeld)
• The responsible person named above must keep a list of participants for four weeks after the event.
• The responsible person has to ensure compliance with the hygiene rules (maintaining a safe distance, hand disinfection, wearing of masks, ventilation).

The maximum number of participants in specific rooms (meeting rooms, lecture halls, etc.) on campus is currently being determined, and will be communicated to event organizers. Rooms will be arranged accordingly – if furniture is moved around, the original layout must be restored after the event.

Business trips abroad should still be avoided. In justified exceptional cases, you must obtain permission from the central crisis management team of the Max Planck Society before planning a business trip: krisenstab@gv.mpg.de

“The Robert Koch Institute is again defining COVID-19 risk areas. We ask all employees to consult the RKI service pages before taking a personal trip abroad or welcoming new employees and guests from abroad to the Tübingen campus. Currently Personal travel to risk areas is not recommended. Persons entering Germany from risk areas have to follow the new guidelines from the German authorities and the Tübingen Campus (see Regulations when entering Germany from abroad). While the Max Planck House is open for guests effective immediately, please note that it may not be used for quarantine.”

Children are now allowed to enter the institute buildings on the Tübingen campus again, provided that they are supervised, and that children older than six wear face masks and observe safe distancing measures, as required by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The institute’s safety officer should be informed, and their instructions followed.

Thank you for your attention to these important matters.