Status update of January 11, 2021
 

Dear employees and guests,

Since December 12, 2020, curfew restrictions applied statewide in Baden-Württemberg due to the still rising number of new coronavirus infections. Since Monday, January 11, an additional testing requirement is necessary when entering Germany. Please also note that the national lockdown continues until January 31, 2021. Retail stores are closed, with exceptions. Schools and daycare centers are also affected. More information can be found here.

As of Saturday, December 12, 2020, leaving your home between 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. is only permitted for valid reasons. These reasons are as follows: 

• Work
• Medical appointments, including veterinary services
• Accompanying minors and persons in need of support
• Accompanying the dying and persons with acute life-threatening conditions
• Caring for animals, including walking them
• Going to school, day-care centers, or educational institutions
• Gatherings for work purposes, official or business operations, public safety and order, or social welfare. 

There will also be daytime curfew restrictions starting on December 12. Leaving your home between 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. is only allowed for valid reasons. Please note that valid reasons for nighttime hours also apply during the day:

• Sports and exercise in the outdoors are only permitted alone, with one person not living in the same household, or with members of your own household.
• Going shopping.
• Gatherings and private events between members of one's own household and one additional person from a second household. This rule does not apply to children from the respective households up to 14 years of age.
• Events in accordance with Section 10 (4) of the Corona Ordinance. This regulates, for example, attendance at court hearings or meetings of municipal bodies.
• Exercising custody and visitation rights for one’s own children.  

For the time being, the measures apply until Jan. 31, 2021.

Please observe the following rules:

• We encourage people whose tasks can be carried out effectively and efficiently from to work from home, in consultation with their supervisors.
• In-person events with several people should be avoided and should instead be held virtually, as should one-on-one meetings. We strongly advise against holding meetings with more than 5 people. If it is absolutely necessary to hold an event with more than 10 people, a hygiene concept must be developed. A person responsible for the event or experiment must be named. A hygiene concept must be submitted to the responsible contact person in time for approval.
• With immediate effect, the consumption of food and beverages in tea kitchens and other common rooms outside the canteen and individual offices should be avoided unless space has been set up specifically for lunch breaks. The rules of distance must be strictly adhered.
• Mask-wearing is still mandatory in the institute buildings and the applicable social distancing rules must be observed.
• Please make sure that rooms are ventilated. This is necessary regardless of other protective measures such as maintaining minimum distances or wearing face masks. 
• Both business and personal trips abroad should be avoided. This applies in particular to the risk areas declared by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). In justified exceptional cases, permission must be obtained your supervisors before planning a business trip abroad.
• We encourage you to use the German Federal Government’s Corona-Warn-App, which is available free of charge in the App Store  and can be downloaded from Google Play. 

We would like to emphasize that we will only be able to maintain the same level of activity on campus if everyone really follows the current rules.

The obligation to wear a mouth-and-nose covering in the institute buildings and the applicable distance regulations remain in force.

• Laboratory workplaces can only be occupied to the maximum extent permitted by the distance regulations.
• For offices the following applies: at least 10 m² per person; exceptions only with other compensatory arrangements (enhanced distance, ventilation etc.). Care must be taken that desks are arranged in such a way that the distance rules can be observed and good ventilation of the room is ensured.
• Please reming that it is mandatory to wear a mouth-nose cover in all public places, especially at universities, schools, in pedestrian zones and waiting areas (as well as still in public transport).

Further information on events and meetings:

• Events with more than ten participants must have a hygiene concept.
• A person responsible for such an event or experiment has to be named.
• A hygiene concept must be submitted to the responsible contact person of the security offices (Brigitte Walderich, Holger Fischer, Jörg Eisfeld) for individual approval.
• The responsible organizing person (as named above) keeps a list of the participants and is responsible for the compliance with the hygiene rules (keeping of distance, hand disinfection, mask obligation, ventilation, etc.).
• The event must be registered and approved by the institute management at least three days in advance (especially in the case of participation by external persons).
• An attendance list must be kept for four weeks after the event.

Not only business, but also private trips abroad should be avoided. This applies in particular to the risk areas declared by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). In justified exceptional cases, permission must be obtained from your supervisor.

• The Robert Koch Institute continuously reviews and defines COVID-19 risk areas. We ask all employees to consult the RKI service pages before taking any personal trip abroad or welcoming new employees and guests from abroad to the Tübingen campus.
• Travel to risk areas must remain a well-justified exception.
• Persons entering Germany from abroad risk areas must follow the current guidelines published by the German authorities and the Tübingen campus. For business trips abroad, clearance must be obtained from the central crisis management team of the Max Planck Society: krisenstab(at)gv.mpg.de
• When entering the country from a risk area, a 10-day quarantine is mandatory, which can be terminated at the earliest with a negative test result obtained from the fifth day of quarantine. From January 11, 2021, there will be an additional testing obligation upon entry. The testing obligation can be fulfilled by testing within 48 hours before arrival or by testing immediately after entry. This so-called "two-test strategy" is introduced due to the currently very dynamic development and the occurrence of mutations of the coronavirus.

The Max-Planck-Haus is open to guests. Please note, however, that it may NOT be used for quarantine purposes.

Children on the Tübingen campus are required to wear masks from the age of six years. All regulations of occupational safety and the individual duty of supervision must be observed.