Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has been present in Germany since 27 January 2020, it is the spread of the respiratory disease COVID-19, which first appeared at the end of 2019 and broke out worldwide at the beginning of 2020, triggered by infection with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) initially assessed the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic for the population in Germany on 28 February 2020 as “low to moderate”, since 17 March as “high” and for risk groups since 26 March as “very high”. With the Act for the Protection of the Population in the Event of an Epidemic Situation of National Significance, which came into force on 27 March 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health was authorized to issue orders in the (normally federal) health care system nationwide and without the consent of the Bundesrat, as long as the Bundestag determines an “epidemic situation of national significance”. This determination had already been made on 25 March.