According to the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU), Germany will not be able to avoid compulsory vaccination in the corona pandemic. A “permanent loop” of loosening and lockdowns must be avoided, said Wüst on Wednesday evening in a pre-recorded interview with the ARD “Tagesthemen” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ essential. “
Wüst, who is currently also chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference, spoke of a very successful vaccination campaign. With a look at the quota of those vaccinated, he added: “Of course we are not fighting for 75, 80 percent. We need 90, 95 percent and preferably more.”
The aim is now to convince people who have not previously felt addressed. “I do believe that with good arguments we can still reach people in these weeks.” But the problem is the last ten percent. For them there will be no getting around a compulsory vaccination, “and we need them quickly”. The federal government must now speed up, demanded the CDU politician. According to the Department of Health’s vaccination dashboard figures released on Wednesday morning, at least 58.7 million people have so far received two or a single vaccination from Johnson & Johnson. That is 70.5 percent of the total population. At least 28.1 million people (33.8 percent) also received an injection to freshen up. (12/22/2021)
Lauterbach: The fifth wave is safe
According to Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), a dramatic increase in new infections due to the new Omikron variant can no longer be stopped. “We must now expect a fifth wave,” he said at noon at a press conference. Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), shares this assessment, but places a different emphasis on the question of how the fifth wave can be counteracted.
While Wieler is calling on the population to restrict contact, Lauterbach sees the booster campaign as “the most important component in combating the Omikron wave”. Booster vaccinations provide 70 to 80 percent protection against symptomatic illness, and even 90 percent against illness with a severe course. So far, 27 million people in Germany have been boosted, and another 30 million should be added by the end of January.
After the Prime Minister’s Conference (MPK) on Tuesday, there had been disagreements between the federal government and the Robert Koch Institute. While the federal-state group instructed further corona measures on December 28, the RKI favored strict contact restrictions in a letter with immediate effect. Apparently this was not discussed. Lauterbach’s statements after the MPK suggest that the violation of the RKI caused irritation within the federal government. Later in the ARD “Tagesthemen” he expressed himself more cautiously. He placed “great value on the scientific advice” of the RKI, but there could be demands that “we will not implement immediately,” he said. When asked whether he would continue to stand by Wieler, Lauterbach said on Wednesday: “Otherwise he wouldn’t be here.” The RKI continues to be a “very central source” for him. Wieler also defended his move: The RKI continuously makes recommendations. The result of the MPK is “adequate”, because many people adhere to the recommendation on contact restrictions on their own, according to the RKI boss.
In order to achieve the goals of the vaccination campaign, doctors in private practice are to be reimbursed for each vaccination from December 24th to January 9th at a holiday rate of 36 euros per vaccination. Lauterbach also advocated keeping the vaccination centers open over the holidays. Sufficient Moderna vaccine would be available that was just as effective as the vaccine from Biontech. With regard to the recommendation of the Standing Vaccination Commission to vaccinate under 30-year-olds exclusively with Biontech, Lauterbach asked Stiko to re-examine their recommendation. In addition, the federal government has ordered four million doses of the inactivated vaccine from Novavax, which could be delivered from January. In this way, those who had concerns about the previously approved vaccines could also be immunized. (12/22/2021)
Federal government tightens entry rules from virus variant areas
The federal government is tightening the entry rules from virus variant areas because of Omikron. Anyone entering Germany from there will need a negative PCR test in the future. Only children under six years of age are exempt from the obligation to provide evidence and test. Countries in which the new coronavirus variant is spreading rapidly are classified as virus variant areas. This currently includes various countries in southern Africa and, since Monday, Great Britain. (12/22/2021)
Berlin schools should test more often after the holidays
In the first week of school after the Christmas break, which begins on January 3rd, non-immunized pupils in Berlin have to be tested five instead of three times because of the danger posed by the Omikron variant. The Senate Administration announced that the self-tests required for this would be made available. From January 10th, as before, three tests per week were planned, as the schools were informed in a circular. The education administration recommends that groups of people who are not subject to mandatory testing – such as vaccinated and recovered schoolchildren and all school staff – should be tested five times in the first week after the Christmas break. (12/22/2021)
Seven-day incidence drops below 300
The seven-day incidence in Germany has fallen again. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 45,659 new infections within 24 hours in the morning. The nationwide incidence value fell from 306.4 the previous day to 289.0 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days. The value was last below 300 on November 11th. 510 other people died related to the virus. This brings the number of reported deaths to 109,324. (22.12.2021)
Corona resolutions do not go far enough in clinics
In view of the impending Omikron wave, the clinics in Germany consider a further tightening of the corona measures to be conceivable. The contact restrictions decided by the federal and state governments are “necessary, but possibly not sufficient,” says the chairman of the board of the German Hospital Society, Gerald Gass, of the Funke media group. It is therefore necessary that the situation continues to be monitored and analyzed on a daily basis. “If necessary, adjustments must then be made at short notice.” Gaß calls on politicians across all parties “not to postpone the debate about the general compulsory vaccination, but rather to make a decision here at short notice.” It takes clarity, a fast vaccination rate and the closing of the vaccination gap. (22.12.2021)
DGB boss wants a broad debate on compulsory vaccination
DGB boss Reiner Hoffmann urges a broader public debate before the introduction of a general corona vaccination requirement. “Personally, I am in favor of a general vaccination requirement,” said the chairman of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) Rheinische Post. “At the same time, however, we must reduce the risk of a division in society between vaccinated and unvaccinated people, which could be deepened by compulsory vaccination,” he said.
A broad public debate should create acceptance even among those who are still skeptical. “You have to take the concerns of vaccination skeptics seriously, but in the end you have to say consistently: Now, after 24 months of pandemic, we are in a situation in which we need mandatory vaccination as a last resort,” said Hoffmann. (12/22/2021)
Kretschmann is dissatisfied with Corona resolutions
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) defended the federal-state resolutions to contain the corona – in particular the contact restrictions that are also valid for vaccinated people, which should apply after Christmas. There is no “Christmas lockdown”, stressed Söder, but a “Christmas caution” would certainly make sense.
Regarding the recommendation of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which had spoken out in favor of “maximum contact restrictions”, Söder said that, according to the federal government, this could not be voted on. Two principles should always apply to all measures: caution and proportionality. All decisions would also have to exist in court. The assessment of the situation is important – and it was currently still subject to many question marks, both from the chairman of the Federal Government’s Expert Council and from Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. The data situation will surely be better by the next federal-state switch on January 7th, said Söder.
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann, on the other hand, is dissatisfied. The agreed contact restrictions are not sufficient, especially if the situation should come to a head soon, the Green politician told the SWR. The countries lacked the necessary instruments to contain the pandemic. If the Omikron mutant were to run up, he could no longer order curfews, for example, criticized Kretschmann.
In a protocol declaration on the MPK resolution, Baden-Württemberg calls on the Bundestag, with a view to the exponential spread of the Omikron variant, to re-establish the so-called “epidemic situation of national importance” in the short term. The state governments of Baden-Württemberg and Saxony also declare that they consider the measures adopted by the federal and state governments to be inadequate.
Manuela Schwesig, the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, apparently shares this opinion. In your country, the restrictions, which will come into force nationwide from December 28th, apply four days earlier, i.e. from Christmas Eve, as it became known that evening. (December 21, 2021)
Weil criticizes the Robert Koch Institute
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil stumbles to the communication of the Robert Koch Institute. The RKI only issued a recommendation “an hour or an hour and a half before the federal-state meeting,” said Weil. The Federal Government’s Expert Council, on the other hand, of which RKI boss Lothar Wieler also belongs, published a statement at the weekend calling for “well-planned and well-communicated contact restrictions” in a much more vague manner.
Karl Lauterbach (SPD) was also critical. There is no scientific censorship, but the publication was “not coordinated”. That shouldn’t happen, said the Federal Minister of Health. With the resolutions, Lauterbach said later in the ARD “Tagesthemen”, “one can work”. What the Bund-Länder-Round decided will have an effect. “But we are not ruling anything out. If the number of cases actually developed in such a way that a hard lockdown also had to be discussed, then there would be no red lines. At this point in time we are not there,” said the Minister of Health. (December 21, 2021)