In response to the Karlsruhe resolutions on anti-corona measures, the executive head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun (CDU), is pushing for a nationwide emergency brake in the fight against the rampant fourth wave of pandemics. “We now need an emergency brake that works nationwide according to uniform rules that are comprehensible to citizens,” said Braun of the German press agency in Berlin. “The judgment makes it clear that binding nationwide action is possible in the Corona crisis. And I add: In the current, difficult situation it is also necessary.”
A continued overload of the health system could only be averted with a nationwide uniform approach, emphasized Braun. “I see the reference to the options for action in individual countries by some traffic light politicians as an escape from shared responsibility,” he criticized at the same time. The Federal Constitutional Court had previously decided that in the third wave of pandemics in spring, the federal government was allowed to impose exit and contact restrictions via the so-called corona emergency brake.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder also sees the judgment as “the basis for a new federal emergency brake”. All those who tried to paint a different picture have now been refuted, writes the CSU politician on Twitter. “Confirmation across the board.” Söder warns: “We have to act quickly now.”
The head of the Chancellery, Braun, had advertised an emergency brake even before the Karlsruhe case law: “In Germany, we have come into the situation that we have always wanted to avoid: our health system is regionally overloaded”. Only with an emergency brake could it be possible to reduce the number of infections again by Christmas. “Every day now counts,” says Braun.
The aim must be to quickly reduce contacts by 60 to 70 percent in regions with a high infection rate, demanded Braun, who is running for the CDU chairmanship. “We now have to hold all major events with thousands of participants, for example Bundesliga games, without visitors again.” In schools there must be a mask requirement again in all grades. “Where the infection rate is particularly critical, consideration must be given to the closure of facilities that are assigned to the leisure sector.” This also applies to gastronomy in the evening hours.
At the same time, Braun dampened expectations of the federal-state meeting, at which the executive chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and her designated successor Scholz (SPD) held a telephone consultation with the state ministers this Tuesday. “Resolutions are not planned for today. That was the prerequisite for the meeting,” he told RTL. “I can only say that they agreed in advance to meet informally. But for days I have been calling for a formal conference of prime ministers and for us to agree on an emergency brake.
The call for tougher countermeasures had recently become louder in view of the new Omikron variant and the force of the fourth corona wave. According to the will of the traffic light parties, the “epidemic situation of national scope” expired one day after the new Infection Protection Act came into force last Thursday. The Union had criticized that the catalog of measures made possible by law was insufficient. (11/30/2021)
Exit and contact restrictions were constitutional
The federal emergency brake decided in April 2021 with night curfews and contact restrictions as well as school closings were compatible with the Basic Law. The Federal Constitutional Court announced this decision.
The measures interfered with various fundamental rights in a significant way, but were compatible with the Basic Law “in the extremely dangerous situation of the pandemic,” said the Supreme Court in Karlsruhe.
The Federal Constitutional Court dismissed complaints from pupils and parents against it, but recognized for the first time a “right of children and adolescents vis-à-vis the state to school education”, as the court announced. (11/30/2021)
Health ministers want pharmacies and dental practices to be vaccinated against the coronavirus
The health ministers of the federal states have asked the federal government to create the legal basis for corona vaccinations in pharmacies and dental practices. This should be done as part of a temporary exemption, said the chairman of the conference of health ministers and Bavarian health minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) on Monday evening after a video session with his colleagues.
The vaccination campaign must be promoted “massively with pragmatism, flexibility and commitment”. “The way out of the pandemic remains: vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” explained Holetschek. The health ministers had agreed that pharmacists and dentists could do a large part in vaccinating as many people as possible quickly and with a low threshold. In pharmacies, model projects for flu vaccinations have achieved good results. The prerequisite is that sufficient vaccine is available, said Holetschek. There should not be a distribution battle between vaccination centers, doctor’s offices and pharmacies. (11/30/2021)
For the first time in three weeks, the incidence has fallen slightly
The nationwide seven-day incidence fell slightly for the first time in more than three weeks compared to the previous day. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week at 452.2. A high of 452.4 had been reached on Monday. A week ago the value was 399.8 (previous month: 153.7). The institute also reports 45 753 new corona infections. Exactly a week ago there were 45,326 infections. 388 deaths have to be added to the death statistics. The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 101,344. The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered on Tuesday as 4,893,300. (11/30/2021)
Saxony and Thuringia: Thousands of people in unauthorized protests against Corona measures
In Saxony and Thuringia, thousands of people protested against the state corona measures in different places. Because of the corona pandemic, only fixed gatherings of up to 35 people are currently allowed there.
In Thuringia, a total of 2,700 people demonstrated at 20 different locations on Monday evening, said a police spokesman. At the largest gathering in Erfurt, 650 people took to the streets, in Arnstadt in the Ilm district and in Bad Salzungen in the Wartburg district, 400 and 280 people respectively gathered. In all other demonstrations, the number of participants would have moved in the double-digit range.
People also demonstrated against the requirements of the Corona Protection Ordinance in several Saxon cities. According to the police, in some cases several hundred people gathered in the city centers, although the current restrictions only allow ten participants there.
The Chemnitz Police Department spoke of larger anti-corona protests in Chemnitz, Zwönitz in the Ore Mountains and Freiberg in the Central Saxony district. In Freiberg, despite controls on the access roads and the presence of the police in the city, up to 700 people gathered for a “walk” against the Corona restrictions. In Chemnitz the police counted around 300 participants.
According to the police, more than 300 and 100 people demonstrated against the Corona measures in Bautzen and Neustadt in Saxony. In Pirna, Sebnitz, Riesa and Großenhain there were around 50 to 70 people in each of the marketplaces. In the state capital Dresden, police officers found a group of up to 80 people in front of the town hall in the evening. (11/30/2021)
Saar government head for nationwide “emergency braking measures”
The Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans called for “nationwide uniform, emergency braking measures” before the federal-state consultations on the corona crisis. “As a last resort, that can of course be a lockdown,” the CDU politician told TV broadcaster Bild Live. “But at the moment the point is that we should even re-establish the scope for action.”
This Tuesday, the Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and her designated successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) want to talk to the Prime Ministers about the worsening Corona situation.
Hans criticized: “At the moment, a federal state should not even go into lockdown if it comes into an emergency. The federal law does not provide for that because the national (…) epidemic emergency is not recognized.” He therefore called on the parties of the desired traffic light coalition to ensure “that the appropriate opportunities are created” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/. said Hans.
According to the will of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, the “epidemic situation of national importance” expired last week after the new Infection Protection Act came into force. The epidemic situation was the legal basis for far-reaching measures in the fight against the corona pandemic. The Union had criticized that the catalog of measures made possible by law was insufficient.
“We have a national pandemic emergency, and I believe that we must therefore now act nationally and come together,” said Hans. With a view to the federal-state switch, he demanded: “I have the expectation that we will discuss the very fundamental questions again with each other. It really has to be acted now in view of the high numbers.” (11/30/2021)