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Germany’s federal government and states are considering new COVID-19 measures to halt the rise in infections, such as dramatically reducing the number of people at household gatherings and compulsory mask wearing for school students.

According to the proposals, which could still change pending the discussion between the federal and regional governments, private gatherings in public will only be possible of people from one household with two people from another household, compared to a maximum of 10 people from two households now.

Schools will see all students wearing masks, compared to some exceptions for elementary schools currently. All classes will be halved to allow more space between individual students.

All people considered vulnerable will be eligible once a week for one heavy duty respirator mask, also known as FFP2.

Since the beginning of the pandemic 520,000 COVID-19 cases have been detected in Germany by the end of October, but numbers spiked by 50% to 780,000 cases in the first two weeks of November.

In the same period, the number of COVID-19-intensive care patients in German hospitals increased by 70%, leading to regional bottlenecks.