The federal and state health ministers will meet at short notice this Wednesday for a video conference to discuss a change to the corona rules. A shortening of the quarantine is under discussion in order to be able to maintain important supply areas in the event that the number of infections should rise sharply due to the spread of the Omikron variant.
The nationwide seven-day incidence has been increasing day by day since December 30th. On Wednesday morning, the Robert Koch Institute reported 58,912 new infections within 24 hours and a seven-day incidence that had increased from 239.9 to 258.6. 346 other people died from the virus.
The education ministers of the federal states also meet for a special service. They want to discuss how school operations can be secured if the Omikron wave grows. In some federal states such as Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg, the virus variant Omikron is already predominant, according to the responsible state authorities. Corona requirements are already being tightened in some regions. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Prime Ministers of the federal states want to set the further course and take new decisions on Friday.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to enforce tougher contact restrictions in addition to shortened quarantine times. “Unfortunately, tightening will be necessary in order to counter the heavy wave that is coming our way,” he told the editorial network in Germany. “I will make suggestions on this.” Lauterbach did not give any details. However, he emphasized that there was no reason to give the all-clear, especially for those who had not been vaccinated. “You cannot promise them that the contact restrictions will be lifted for them in the short or medium term,” said the minister.
The SPD politician defended his attempt to shorten the quarantine with a view to the Omikron variant of the virus. “Studies show that the generation time – including the phase in which the virus spreads in the body and the phase in which a person is contagious – is much shorter with Omikron,” he explained. “So we can shorten the quarantine period to a certain extent without taking any risks.”
The background to the considerations is the concern that important supply areas could be endangered if the number of infections skyrocketed and many employees had to be quarantined at the same time. Lauterbach named in particular hospitals, elderly care, police, fire brigade and water and electricity supplies. New quarantine and isolation rules are required for these areas. School and travel should also be considered.
The German Association of Cities warned that staff shortages must be avoided at all costs. General manager Helmut Dedy assured at the same time: “Cities and municipal companies prepare for possible failures with their personnel planning.” For example, pandemic plans would be drawn up, according to which teams can work separately from one another, or duty rosters would be designed so that employees from vacation could be called upon in the event of bottlenecks.
A comprehensive lockdown is no longer possible after changes to the Infection Protection Act by the traffic light parties. “We want to avoid blanket and blanket closings in the future”, assured Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in an interview with the daily newspapers Stuttgart newspaper, Stuttgart news and the partner newspapers of the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft. (05.01.2021)
Lauterbach wants quick vaccination without a vaccination register
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach wants to quickly introduce compulsory vaccinations without setting up a vaccination register. He is working on a proposal, Lauterbach told the editorial network Germany. “Omikron as a dirty vaccination is not an alternative to compulsory vaccination,” said the SPD politician. He appealed to unvaccinated people “that they should be vaccinated at least once quickly so that they have at least an important protective effect for the very serious course of the disease”.
At the end of last year, the Bundestag had already decided on compulsory vaccination for the staff of facilities in which people who are particularly at risk from Covid-19 are cared for, treated or cared for. This obligation, which is essentially limited to healthcare and long-term care, applies from mid-March. In addition, a general compulsory vaccination for the whole or at least large parts of the population is also being discussed. To this end, there should be motions in the Bundestag, on which the members should then vote according to conviction and not according to parliamentary group discipline.
Lauterbach also addressed new vaccination goals. “According to the modeling by the Robert Koch Institute, the goal should be that more than 80 percent of those who have been vaccinated twice are also boosted, i.e. 56 percent of the population.” (05.01.2021)
Faeser: “Who are you demonstrating with?”
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) demands that the rule of law must crack down on radicals in protests against the corona policy. “When people become radical and abusive, then I think a limit has been reached,” she told ARD on Tuesday–Capital studio. This means that a meeting will be dissolved if it is not registered. Threats and violence could not be accepted.
Faeser, however, pleaded for the so-called “walkers” to be treated differently. If people disagree, you have to be ready to talk. Only a very small minority is radical. She appeals to moderate participants in the rallies: “Look carefully at who you are demonstrating with. Of course, criticism is always very welcome in a democracy as long as it takes place on the basis of the constitution.” (04/01/2022)
Number of detected Omicron cases tripled within a week
The number of reliably proven and probable Omicron cases in Germany transmitted to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has more than tripled within a week. 35,529 would now be assigned to the new Corona variant, it said on Tuesday on an RKI overview page. A week ago the value was 10,443. A graph from the RKI on the development over time shows a very steep increase in the weekly reported numbers in connection with Omikron.
For the current and the past week, the RKI expects a high number of new and late registrations. Depending on the detection method, several days or weeks can therefore elapse between the initial report of a corona infection and the laboratory result of the presence of a certain variant.
According to the RKI, the figures only include Omikron cases that have been reliably proven by a complete genetic analysis or in which a variant-specific PCR test has revealed a suspicion of Omikron. In Germany, only a small proportion of the positive samples are tested for variants.
Detailed information on the cases recorded is currently only incomplete. It is currently stated that six people from the age group 60 to 79 years, two from the group 35 to 59 years and one from the group 15 to 34 years have died. 361 cases were reported to have been admitted to the hospital. In 564 there was information that it was a reinfection – i.e. an infection despite previous corona infection.
In absolute numbers, according to the RKI, most of the previous reports that are assigned to Omikron are from North Rhine-Westphalia with 10 779. This is followed by Bavaria with almost 7537 and Baden-Württemberg with 4323. In the southwestern state, Omikron is with the local government according to a current query Laboratories are now dominant. The RKI does not specify how often the variant is tested in a respective federal state. (04/01/2022)
Prison directors want inmates to be vaccinated
In order to protect against infection and to ensure the functionality of the criminal justice system, prison directors are calling for inmates and staff in prisons to be vaccinated. In view of the often “lack of insight into the necessity of adherence to hygiene and protection rules” as well as the “below average vaccination rates among inmates”, prisons are at great risk for corona outbreaks, warns the Federal Association of Institution Directors in Prison (BVAJ) . The vaccination rates for people working in the penal system as well as for external employees with access to the prisons remained “in many places below what is required”.
The mandatory vaccination for clinics and care facilities must be extended to prisons as quickly as possible, according to the federal association. Because an accumulation of infections among inmates or servants could “seriously disrupt security and order”. (04/01/2022)