Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) issued a new Corona Basic Measures Regulation on Friday. It essentially extends the measures that have been in place for three months. As expected, there are no changes to the mask requirement. Only the exceptions for churches have been newly regulated by a decision of the Constitutional Court (VfGH). The new rules come into effect on Monday; the regulation is limited to January 15, 2023.
One thing is certain: as before, the FFP2 mask requirement only applies in hospitals, retirement and nursing homes and doctor’s offices. For indoor use, the mask is recommended only.
Hygiene measures must continue to be observed
For the churches, the new ordinance does not change the celebration of church services. In concrete terms, this means that churches can be entered and church services can be celebrated without special corona-related restrictions. Nevertheless, it is recommended to “maintain as much as possible” various hygiene measures.
“Religious Meetings”
The Constitutional Court ruled in the summer that the corona-related ban on entering cultural institutions in the fall of 2021 violated equality – the reason for this was the general exception for churches and religious communities in the regulation. For this reason, “religious gatherings” are no longer generally excluded from the scope of the Regulation.
Instead, the regulation has been more narrowly defined and now only applies to “gatherings of legally recognized churches and religious communities and state-registered religious denominational communities for the practice of religion”, provided that equivalent protective measures exist for them.
Development of a prevention concept for more than 500 participants
Under the current legal situation, this would involve the development of a prevention concept and the appointment of a COVID-19 officer for more than 500 participants, but equivalent regulations would also be possible. Even if the measures are tightened up, the churches do not have to adopt them one-on-one, but they can also take equivalent measures.
Source: Krone
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