olaf scholz announced the creation of a successor body which would be larger, more influential, and advised by scientists. members of the liberal fdp party and the greens, the partners of scholz in the traffic light coalition, expressed their view that the creation of such a new body had been overdue. outgoing chancellor angela merkel had already signaled her support for the new crisis team. in line with these plans, a new corona-krisenstab was created on behest of the outgoing government of chancellor merkel, and commenced its work in november 2021. headed by major general carsten breuer, the main tasks of the team were the coordination and cooperation in the steering of the vaccination campaign, and the delivery and distribution of vaccines. it had up to 30 members. the crisis team was dissolved as per a government announcement on 11 may 2022. a government spokesperson explained this step by saying that germany was now in a "completely different situation" regarding infections and vaccinations, and that pandemic management was henceforth to be conducted within the "usual work structures" of the government. at the same time, she cautioned that the measure was by no means to be understood as signaling an end of the pandemic, as it would be "fully clear" that it was continuing. criteria for the adjustment of restrictions three ways to sign in for contact tracing during the covid-19 pandemic in germany from may 2020 until late 2021, the so-called "seven-day incidence" was the main criterion for determining restrictions to fight the pandemic. the seven-day incidence is measured at a locality (district, state or federal level) as the average number of new cases per 100,000 residents in the preceding seven days. at a videoconference of chancellor angela merkel and the 16 state governors on 6 may 2020, state governments were authorised to reimpose restrictions immediately in case of the seven-day incidence surpassing the threshold of 50. this measure, billed as "emergency brake", was intended to allow quick action against local outbreaks before the entire country would be affected. starting from 14 september 2020, the rki reported on the front page of its daily updates the countrywide seven-day incidence, as well as the number of districts with a seven-day incidence above 50; from 2 october 2020, the incidence was shown separately for those aged 60 and over, and from 28 december, also separately for those aged 80 and over. when imposing the new lockdown in early november 2020, the government stated that its goal was to reduce the seven-day incidence to about 50, as this would enable contact tracing. additionally, in the january 2021 extension and toughening of the measures, a seven-day incidence of 200 or above triggered a travel ban for the affected district. before the seven-day incidence was established as a key indicator, the effective reproduction number r played a major role in the public debate. at a meeting of chancellor merkel, chancellor-in-waiting olaf scholz and the 16 state premiers on 18 november 2021, it was agreed that the so-called hospitalization incidence would be the new benchmark for introducing tougher anti-pandemic measures. by that time, the seven-day incidence had been subject to long-standing criticism for its shortcomings by several experts, including epidemiologist gérard krause of the helmholtz centre for infection research (hzi). a september 2021 amendment of the infection protection act had already included the number of hospitalizations as a principal factor, besides the occupancy of intensive care units and the vaccination rate. under the new rules from november 2021, if the number of hospitalized in the preceding seven days exceeded the number of three per 100,000 residents, all public leisure facilities were to operate under the "2g" rule. if it exceeded the number of six, they were to operate under the "2g+" rule (see section 3g, 2g, and 2g+ rules below for the definition of these notions). if it exceeded the number of nine, further measures such as contact restrictions were to be implemented. the absence of any such threshold to date had been criticized by merkel a day earlier, with her saying that the hospitalization rate as an index without such a threshold would be "a toothless tiger". in september 2021, critics had said that the method for computing the hospitalization rate tended to considerably underestimate it. a main reason cited for this was that hospitalizations would usually occur several days after a positive coronavirus test and consequently, due to the computation method adopted by the robert koch institute, contribute to past hospitalization rates, rather than the present one. 3g, 2g, and 2g+ rules from august until november 2021, most of germany was operating under the "3g" rule, which limited access to hospitals and nursing homes, as well as restaurants, bars and cinemas to those who were fully vaccinated, the recovered, and those who had recently tested negative for the coronavirus. the "3g" rule was seen by observers as increasing pressure on the population to get vaccinated. as the fourth wave of the pandemic gained momentum towards the end of 2021, particularly in view of the growing pressure on intensive care units, there were increased calls to adopt the "2g" rule, under which access to the aforementioned venues was limited to the vaccinated and the recovered. the "2g" rule was incorporated in the anti-pandemic measures passed by the bundestag on 18 november 2021, as well as the "2g plus" (2g+) rule, which added the requirement of an up-to-date negative coronavirus test to the "2g" requirements. in november, bavarian premier markus söder announced the implementation of a statewide "2g" rule, which he described as a "de facto lockdown" for unvaccinated people. besides not being allowed access to facilities such as hairdressers, as well as universities and adult education centers, they were also subject to contact restrictions. at a meeting of lauterbach with the state health ministers on 14 december 2021, it was agreed that the testing requirement of the "2g+" rule would be dropped for those having received a vaccine booster shot at least 15 days earlier, except for nursing homes and hospitals. several german states had already adopted this measure. in december 2021, virologist christian drosten suggested that germany should, in case that the measures already taken against the new omicron variant should not work, consider a "1g" rule, meaning that only people who had received a booster shot would be allowed access to venues of concern. earlier in november 2021, thyssenkrupp had labelled as "1g" its offer to staff to be voluntarily tested every day at work. vaccine mandate federal ministers of health during the pandemic: until 8 december 2021 jens spahn (left) and from 8 december 2021 karl lauterbach (right). until mid-2021, a general covid-19 vaccine mandate was considered by observers to be highly unlikely, with politicians from several parties, including health minister spahn in february 2021, ruling out such a mandate. in july 2021, however, flagging vaccine uptake and a looming fourth wave of the pandemic contributed to an emerging debate on the matter. observers considered that some of the anti-pandemic measures had in practice come close to being a mandate, such as access to bars and restaurants without a negative coronavirus test (as per the "3g" rule). chancellor merkel urged the public to get vaccinated but said that there would be no obligation to do so, as this could endanger public trust. constitutional lawyers stressed the need for objective reasons for distinguishing between vaccinated and unvaccinated people. in november 2021, against the backdrop of surging covid-19 cases and a vaccination rate lagging behind that of other eu countries, chancellor-in-waiting olaf scholz "signaled his sympathy" for introducing mandatory covid-19 vaccination as early as february 2022, according to an official close to scholz. the outgoing merkel government also proposed the possibility of a mandate. on 8 december, the day of assuming office, scholz announced his intention to make covid-19 vaccination mandatory, a view he repeated in parliament on 12 january 2022. on 10 december 2021, an amendment to the infection protection act was passed in parliament which included a vaccine mandate for health workers in hospitals, nursing homes, doctors' offices, facilities for people with disabilities, and other health facilities to show proof of vaccination or recovery from covid-19. the mandate took effect on 15 march 2022. implementation however extended into the following weeks, due in part to some local health authorities allowing latitude in considering individual cases. it withstood legal challenges, finally so in march 2022. bavaria postponed the implementation indefinitely. on 22 december 2021, the german ethics council said it favored an extension of the vaccine mandate to all adults, while saying that the justification of an extension would require it to "mitigate or prevent serious negative consequences of possible future pandemic waves, such as high mortality, long-term adverse health effects on significant parts of the population, or an imminent collapse of the health care system." it said there should be a range of considerations and measures including direct invitations to those obliged to get vaccinated; disseminating relevant information in a culturally sensitive manner; and including social media in the outlets for such information. legal obstacles and the absence of a timeline for the introduction of pertaining legislation led observers to predict in early 2022 that a general mandate would be unlikely before september. on 4 april, days before a vote in the bundestag was scheduled, the initiative for a general vaccine mandate was effectively shelved, with a group of 237 parliamentarians who had favored it switching to proposing instead a mandate for those aged 50 and over. on 5 april, the proposal was amended to lift the age threshold to 60 years. the failure of the amended proposal, which had been supported by chancellor scholz and health minister lauterbach, at the bundestag vote on 7 april for which foreign minister annalena baerbock had been recalled by scholz to participate, was considered a major defeat for the chancellor and his governing coalition. a recent opinion poll had found 60 per cent of germans to be supporting a vaccine mandate. lauterbach expressed his regret about this decision. rapid coronavirus testing on 24 july 2020, authorities announced that germany would offer free voluntary coronavirus tests to all returning holidaymakers, with arrivals from 130 designated high-risk countries being eligible for tests on the same day. testing facilities would be set up at airports. from 8 march 2021, a week later than had been anticipated by health minister spahn in mid-february, the government footed the bill for one weekly rapid test per resident, to be administered by trained personnel. the rationale for the free-of-charge tests, also referred to as bürgertests (citizen tests), was to avoid stricter pandemic measures during the severe covid-19 wave of that time. by early august 2021, the cost for the government incurred by the free rapid tests had reached over 3 billion euros. the federal ministry of health suggested the end of free rapid tests in october. on 10 august 2021, after meeting the 16 state premiers, chancellor merkel announced that free covid-19 tests would end on 11 october 2021, except for children, teenagers, and those with medical conditions which make them ineligible for vaccination. chancellor merkel justified this decision by saying that the government was now able to offer vaccines to every german citizen. on 8 november 2021, it was reported that the prospective future government parties of the traffic light coalition – the spd, the alliance 90/the greens and the fdp – had agreed to make rapid coronavirus tests again free of charge; on 12 november 2021, health minister spahn announced that this would be implemented from the following day. on 24 june 2022, health minister lauterbach announced that daily rapid tests would remain free of charge from 30 june only for risk groups, with others having to pay a contribution of 3 euros per test from that date. lauterbach expressed his regret about the decision, citing the financial burden of about one billion euros per month had the free tests for all been continued. all remaining bürgertest centers ceased to operate with effect from 1 march 2023. the free coronavirus testing scheme, which allowed private operators to receive government funding, led to multiple cases of fraud. the berlin state criminal police office estimated the damage to be between one and one and a half billion euros. the limitation