Coronavirus closure and emergency childcare

Dear parents,

As you have no doubt already learnt from the media, the Bavarian state government has ordered all schools and childcare facilities to close from Monday 16 March 2020 up to and including 19 April 2020.

This measure is aimed at delaying the spread of infections in Bavaria and at protecting vulnerable groups. Situations with possible risk of infection are to be prevented or a total of five weeks to slow down the spread of COVID-19.

In practical terms today’s decree of the state government means that, with a few exceptions, we will not be allowed to care for your children from Monday 16 March 2020 up to and including 19 April 2020. A prohibition of entry for children will be in force at Minihaus München during this period.

The only exception to this rule are children whose parents or guardians work in key areas of the infrastructure and whose work duties prevent them from caring for their children.

This includes, in particular, all institutions providing health care and nursing services and care for the disabled, child and youth welfare, public safety and law enforcement including non-police emergency management (fire and rescue services and disaster control), maintaining public infrastructure (telecommunication services, supply of energy and water, public transport, waste management) and ensuring the operation of key departments of government, judiciary and administration.

A further requirement is that no other parent or guardian is available to care for the child(ren). One of the parents or guardians being employed in critical infrastructure does not constitute an exception; in this case the other parent will have to care for the child(ren). For single parents it is sufficient if the single parent is part of the group specified and no other care option is available.

The following conditions also apply:

the child has no manifestations of disease,

the child has not been in contact with infected persons or 14 days have passed since the contact with infected persons and the child has no symptoms of illness,

the child has not been to an area which the Robert Koch-Institut (RKI) classified as risk area at the time of the stay or within 14 days thereafter (information which is updated daily is available online at https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/Risikogebiete.html, in German) or 14 days have passed since the child’s return from the risk area and the child has no symptoms of illness.

From Monday 16 March 2020 Minihaus München will offer emergency childcare for those children meeting the above criteria during the usual bookable hours.

Please use the emergency care only if you belong to the group defined above and have no other care options for your children.

Dear parents, we are fully aware of the fact that the measures applied by the state government present you with an enormous challenge. We would have loved to continue providing our services to you in the usual manner. But we appreciate that far-reaching precautions like this are necessary to protect the health of all of us.

We thank you very much for your understanding and hope to be able to provide you with our full range of childcare services again as soon as possible.

We also enclose the „Elterninformation zum Coronavirus“ [Information on coronavirus for parents, in German] issued by the Department of Education and Sports of the City of Munich on 13 March 2020 for your information.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have. You can contact us by e-mail on kontakt@minihaus-muenchen.de and from 7:00 am on Monday 16 March by phone on +49 89 41 11 49 400.

Yours sincerely,

MINIHAUS MÜNCHEN
Rainer Eckerl