This Monday, the SPD, Greens and FDP want to present a legal basis for further combating the corona pandemic. The Bundestag will then discuss a new Infection Protection Act in the first reading on Thursday. The first details from the draft are already known.
On November 25th the Special status of the epidemic situation of national importance the end. Green parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt rejected an extension on Sunday evening in the ARD program “Anne Will”. She emphasized that a solution was necessary that was sufficient and also legally secure in view of the majority of vaccinated people in Germany.
Apparently it should no nationwide 2-G rule give. Katrin Göring-Eckardt said on ARD that, from her point of view, this could not be made legally certain nationwide.
As the Picture on sunday also reported citing negotiating circles, the SPD, Greens and FDP are considering, among other things, a Compulsory daily testing for employees and visitors in nursing homes – regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or recovered. Z
The newspaper also reported that it was in the draft more sick days for parents should be given if children have to be cared for at home due to infection, quarantine or daycare closings.
From parliamentary groups it was said at the weekend that the three possible coalition partners wanted, among other things, new ones Regulations on the test offer commit. Representatives from the Greens and the FDP have already spoken out in favor of offering corona citizen tests again free of charge in the winter half-year.
Further measures are also being debated within the federal government, which is still in charge:
The Ministry of Health and the Chancellery, it is said, are open to suggestions that the Corona citizen tests free of charge again meant to be. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel is accompanying such considerations “quite positively,” says government spokesman Steffen Seibert. A health ministry spokesman said the August 10th prime ministerial conference decision to make the tests chargeable was correct. Since then there have been around six million first vaccinations. It is just as right to temporarily reintroduce the free tests in the fourth wave.
Merkel also wants more clarity as to the value from which the Hospitalization rate additional corona measures are to be taken. Seibert points out that they are in a “very dynamic situation” and that the hospitalization rate in individual federal states such as Thuringia is again approaching the maximum value of the previous winter. The value indicates how many people infected with corona per 100,000 inhabitants are admitted to hospitals in a week. (11/08/2021)
Austria intensifies controls of the corona measures
The government in Vienna wants to deploy additional officials to control the nationwide 2-G rule that has been in force since Monday. “We will significantly increase the control pressure in the next few days,” said Interior Minister Karl Nehammer at a press conference. In addition to the patrol officers who were already on duty, 800 more police officers should be on duty. The interior minister said the penalties for violating the 2-G rule are “sensitive”. Up to 500 euros for private individuals and up to 30,000 euros for restaurant operators.
In Austria, the pandemic is gaining dangerous pace: the seven-day incidence is around 600. 8,178 new corona cases were reported on Monday morning, which would correspond to around 80,000 new infections in Germany based on the population of Germany, which is around ten times higher. A few days ago, the government was forced to tighten the corona measures: Only those who have been vaccinated and recovered are now allowed to visit restaurants, hotels, cultural institutions and sports facilities; the same applies to ski lifts from the start of the winter season. After the rules were tightened, long queues formed in front of some vaccination centers over the weekend.
Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg expects that the corona measures that have just been tightened will have to be maintained until at least the end of the year. “It will probably be a 2-G Christmas,” he said Kronen newspaper. (11/08/2021)
Incidence rises to highest level since the beginning of the pandemic
The nationwide seven-day incidence has reached the highest value since the beginning of the corona pandemic. The Robert Koch Institute stated the number of confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Monday morning as 201.1. The previous maximum value was reached at the height of the second corona wave on December 22nd, 2020 with 197.6. The previous day the incidence was 191.5, a week ago it was 154.8 (previous month: 63.8). The health authorities in Germany reported 15,513 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. Exactly a week ago the value was 9658 infections.
According to the new information, 33 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 23 deaths. The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was last given by the RKI on Friday at 3.91 (Thursday: 3.73). The previous high was around 15.5 around Christmas 2020.
Unlike last winter, many people are now vaccinated, and the vaccination rate is high, especially among the particularly endangered very old people. Experts therefore assume that the health system can now withstand more new infections than before the vaccinations, as these protect very well against the course of serious illnesses. However, critical care physicians are concerned about the rapid rise in incidence in recent days. (08.11.2021)
The number of corona intensive care patients could soon double
Doctors fear a doubling of the corona patients in intensive care units. Christian Karagiannidis, scientific director of the intensive care register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Intensive Care, said already now, with almost 2500 cases, as many corona patients would have to be cared for in the intensive care units as at the same point in time a year ago with the second corona wave Emergency Medicine (Divi), the Augsburger Allgemeine. In the coming weeks, the number is expected to almost double if the new infections continue to rise as before. “With an incidence of 300, we expect around 4500 Covid patients nationwide with large regional differences,” warned Karagiannidis.
Bavaria’s Minister of Health Klaus Holetschek warned: “A further doubling would be numerically well above the maximum values of the past waves and our health system in Germany would no longer be able to cope with it.” The CSU politician sees one of the main causes in the low vaccination rate. “In Bavaria, too, the unvaccinated in particular flood our hospitals. More than 90 percent of these are patients who have turned down the chance of a vaccination to this day,” said Holetschek.
Intensive care physician Karagiannidis believes it is difficult to make long-term predictions about the course of the pandemic. Based on the incidences, one can predict relatively clearly what will happen in the coming weeks. “What we can’t predict is at what level it will stall,” he said. It is unclear what effect 2-G rules and booster vaccinations have or whether the population is changing their behavior. (08.11.2021)
Teachers’ Association warns of loss of control over virus in schools
In view of the rising number of corona infections, the German Teachers Association warns of a loss of control over the pandemic in schools. “There are terrifying incidences in the group of children and adolescents,” said association president Heinz-Peter Meidinger to the editorial network Germany. The risk of losing control over it is immense.
Meidinger pleaded for continuing to adhere to the mask requirement: “I think it is extremely worrying if the federal states, contrary to the recommendation of the Robert Koch Institute, say goodbye to the requirement to wear a mask in schools, although the infections among school children are going through the roof.” Studies have shown that the mask requirement makes schools safer. Those responsible in the countries should not put their own political wishes above scientific expertise, warned the association president. (08.11.2021)