Status update as of October 4, 2022
 

Dear employees and guests,

Updated regulations for handling the coronavirus apply in the federal state of Baden Wuerttemberg since October 1, 2022. The mask requirement in public transport (including train and air travel) and medical areas (e.g., doctors' offices, hospitals, nursing homes) remains in place. Occasionally, facilities and businesses open to the public may make use of their house rules and continue to impose a mask requirement. Please always observe the notices at the entrances. Further details about the hygiene rules on campus can be found in the overview below.

Obligations for employees

• Keep the gap: maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 meters between persons when possible.
• Use a mask inside buildings when tightly congregating or in common areas: Employees and guests must again wear masks wherever the minimum distance of 1.5m cannot be maintained.
• Please also wear a hygiene or FFP2 mask in common areas such as the hallways, big laboratories, lounge areas, communal kitchens, toilets and in the canteen. We will continue to offer masks to all employees
• Follow good hygiene rules: Please wash your hands regularly and thoroughly, keep your hands away from your face, cough or sneeze properly, and handle food hygienically. 
• If you are ill, stay away from others: If you have symptoms similar to those of Covid-19, it is prohibited to come to campus.
• Rooms should be ventilated regularly: Please ventilate indoor spaces so that they are protected from infection, but the rooms should not become too cold. We recommend short and thorough ventilation.

Please also consider the following measures

• Personal contacts should be reduced wherever possible. Please consider to hold virtual or hybrid meetings when feasible.
• In consultation with your supervisor, please consider doing some of your work from home when practical and if there are no operational reasons to the contrary.
• We are continuing to offer free Corona-tests to all employees 2 times per week to reduce the risk of an infection at the workplace. Please test yourself regularly. 
• We encourage all employees to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 Corona virus as recommended by their doctors.

Quarantine rules

• After five days, isolation terminates if affected individuals have no symptoms of illness for at least 48 hours. If symptoms persist, the isolation must be continued. It ends after ten days at the latest. A negative test is not necessary to end the isolation.
• Contact persons and household members are not obliged for isolation - regardless of their vaccination status. For them, it is recommended to reduce contacts with other persons for a period of ten days after the last contact with the person who tested positive.
• For employees in hospitals and care facilities, etc., the following applies: after isolation, work is only allowed to be resumed with a negative Corona test.
   

Regulations for events, gatherings, meetings and conferences

Notes:

3G: Evidence required of testing, vaccination or recovery
2G: Evidence required of vaccination or recovery
AHA+L: Distancing – hand hygiene – face covering + ventilation

The 2G model may only be operationally necessary at events, gatherings, meetings or conferences, if individuals are also given the option to attend based on a hybrid variant.
This procedure is intended to ensure that virtual attendance does not lead to disadvantages in the employment relationship. At the same time, virtual participation does not mean that individuals do not meet the 2G criteria. Virtual participation may be chosen for a variety of reasons, e.g. to avoid travel, clashes with other meetings etc. There is no requirement to disclose the reasons.
Participation in the 2G model during attendance must be voluntary for MPG employees; this is the main basis to ensure that employees are not forced to provide information about their vaccination status. Reason: For reasons relating to data protection law, employers are notpermitted to ask about their employees' vaccination status.

Hygiene concepts for events with four or more people

• Hygiene concepts must be submitted for meetings with more than four people and should include the following information:
• Meetings should be kept as short as possible and must end by 10:00 p.m., if not earlier.
• No beverages with high alcohol content may be consumed.
• Organizers must ensure that spacing and sanitation rules are followed at all times.
• The appropriate hygiene policy form can be downloaded here and in the sidebar to the right.

Mobile working and business trips

• Tasks that can be handled effectively and efficiently from home should be able to be performed in the home office in consultation with your supervisor.
• Travel to risk areas must remain a well-justified exception.
• The Robert Koch Institute continuously defines COVID-19 risk areas. We ask all employees to consult the RKI service pages before undertaking personal travel abroad or welcoming new employees and guests from abroad to the Tübingen campus.
• Persons entering Germany from risk areas must follow the guidelines issued by the German authorities and the Tübingen Campus. For business trips abroad, clearance must be obtained from the central crisis team of the Max Planck Society: krisenstab(at)gv.mpg.de.

The Max Planck House and its cafeteria and canteen is open for guests. Children at the Tübingen Campus are required to wear masks from the age of six. The general regulations of supervision and the requirements of occupational health and safety must be observed.