Söder for easing the Corona measures
Friday, January 21, 12:57 p.m.: Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is calling for some easing of the corona measures despite the increasing number of infections. After the CSU board meeting on Friday morning, he said: “It doesn’t make sense to tighten up now.” Söder announced that he would again allow 50 percent of the viewers at cultural events in the coming week instead of 25 percent, and 2-G-plus should continue to apply. He also called for professional sport to be given a perspective. It cannot be that there are spectators in the stadium in Hamburg but none in Munich. A 2-G certificate should still be sufficient for a visit to the catering trade. For children and young people, there should be relaxation when working in the afternoon.
Söder said: “The numbers are increasing by leaps and bounds, but there is still no reason for panic and hysteria.” The Omicron variant appears to lead to milder courses, the number of booster vaccinations is increasing, and the health system in Bavaria is currently not overloaded. As in the past few days, the Prime Minister emphasized: “We want to continue to be cautious, but with a sense of proportion.”
Söder again criticized the fact that the federal government does not want to submit its own draft law for general vaccination. Söder warned that voting on group applications by MPs could lead to “random majorities” in the Bundestag. He advocated merging the dates for the introduction of compulsory vaccination for nursing facility staff and general compulsory vaccination. Otherwise there is a risk of further personnel problems in nursing.
Associations demand prioritization of teaching staff for PCR tests
Friday, January 21, 12:50 p.m.: The Bavarian teachers’ representation abl calls for teachers to be considered critical infrastructure and prioritized for PCR tests. Michael Schwägerl, President of the abl (Working Group of Bavarian Teachers’ Associations), announced on Friday that face-to-face teaching should remain possible in the fifth wave of the pandemic.
With the number of corona cases exploding, the number of teachers in quarantine or isolation is also increasing. In addition, there is a lack of staff anyway. That pushes schools to their limits, some are already sending children home. The abl wants to ensure that the staff can test themselves and teach again promptly. It is currently difficult to get hold of PCR tests, and labs are working at their capacity limits due to the high demand.
AfD welcomes unannounced corona protests
Friday, January 21, 12:44 p.m.: At its winter retreat, the state parliament AfD expressly showed solidarity with the unannounced protests against corona measures. One stands “by the peaceful walks of concerned citizens,” said parliamentary group leader Ulrich Singer on Friday in Munich. The AfD once again criticized what it believed to be disproportionate anti-corona measures. Some of this is no longer legal, as shown by the judicially stopped 2G rule in retail, said co-group leader Christian Klingen.
TK: Applications for child sickness benefit in Bavaria more than doubled
Friday, January 21, 11:07 a.m.: Insured persons of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) in Bavaria applied for child sickness benefit almost one and a half times as often in 2021 as in the previous year. There were 90,822 applications, “that’s an increase of almost 140 percent compared to 2020,” said TK Bayern manager Christian Bredl, according to a statement on Friday. This is a higher increase than the national average (123 percent). Only in Hamburg (189 percent), North Rhine-Westphalia (168 percent) and Hesse (143 percent) was the increase larger than in the Free State.
According to TK, a good four out of ten applications are related to the special corona rules for child sickness benefits. Because of the pandemic, the number of children’s sick days had tripled from 10 to 30 per parent last year. The introduction of this regulation alone triggered 38,000 applications in 2021, TK announced. With more than 28,000, almost three quarters of these corona-related applications were made between January and April.
Incidence in Bavaria is increasing – Eleven districts over 1000
Friday, January 21, 6:47 a.m.: The incidence in Bavaria continues to rise – according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) it was 755.0 on Friday. Eleven of the 96 districts and urban districts have slipped over the 1000 mark, including Munich, Ingolstadt and Schweinfurt. On Thursday, the reading was 661.2. The health authorities in Bavaria reported 25,014 new cases to the RKI in the past 24 hours. 30 people died from or with the corona virus in the same period – a total of 20,266 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The districts of Dachau (1288.1), Ebersberg (1178.4) and the district of Munich (1153.0) report the highest incidence values. The city of Munich has had 1122.4 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days. The district of Coburg reports the lowest value with 269.1. So far, the new wave has not been particularly noticeable in the intensive care units. According to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, 348 Covid patients were in intensive care units in Bavaria on Friday morning.
From now on, FFP2 masks are mandatory again in plenary sessions of the state parliament
Thursday, January 20, 5:44 p.m.: In view of the rapidly spreading omicron wave, the corona rules in the Bavarian state parliament are being tightened further. In addition to the 3G rule – access only for those who have been vaccinated, recovered or tested – the President of the State Parliament Ilse Aigner (CSU) ordered FFP2 masks to be worn in plenary sessions again on Thursday. MEPs who cannot or do not want to provide 3G proof must continue to sit in the stands, but can also speak from there.
“FFP2 masks protect very well against the omicron variant, as current studies show,” said Aigner. “You are therefore helping us decisively in ensuring that the Bavarian state parliament remains able to act and that the necessary debates can be held here in parliament, especially in the current phase.” At the same time, the President of the Parliament called on all MPs to do a PCR test before the meetings.
According to a decision by the Council of Elders, the plenary session is to meet from Thursday to the end of February with a reduced number of members, but for reasons of the rules of procedure at least half of the MPs. The committees are also to meet with a reduced number of eleven MPs until the end of March.
“Dramatic decline” in visitor numbers – museums call for the end of 2-G-plus
Thursday, January 20, 11:40 a.m.: Because of the sharp drop in visitor numbers, the museums in Bavaria are calling for the strict access rules to be relaxed. The museums were badly affected by the introduction of the 2-G-plus rules, the working group of museums in Bavaria criticized in an open letter on Thursday. There is a “dramatic decline” in visitors in all houses.
Many museums in the Free State are therefore reaching the limits of their ability to act, it is said. “Our cultural offer, like that of the theaters and all other cultural institutions, is a cornerstone of our cultural self-image.”
While a special path was taken for gastronomy with the 2-G rule, a quasi-lockdown was still ordered for the museums. In many houses, the paradoxical situation arises that 2G prevails in the museum café, while 2-G-plus is required at the museum door. In the letter, the representatives of the Bavarian museums call for “an end to unequal treatment”. The museums have always acted very responsibly and prudently in every phase of the corona waves.
Incidence in Bavaria is increasing – three districts over 1000
Thursday, January 20, 6:37 a.m.: The incidence in Bavaria continues to rise – on Thursday, three districts will slip above the 1000 mark for the first time in the new year. The corona incidence reported by the Robert Koch Institute is higher than ever before in Bavaria. With a value of 661.2 new infections within seven days per 100,000 inhabitants on Thursday morning, it left the old high from the delta wave behind. On November 26, the incidence was 652.5. On Wednesday, the reading was 607.1. The health authorities in Bavaria reported 21,784 new cases to the RKI in the past 24 hours, more than twice as many as the day before (10,729). 22 people died from or with the corona virus in the same period – a total of 20,236 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The districts of Dachau (1076.0), Ebersberg (1032.7) and Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen (1015.5) report the highest incidence values. The city of Munich follows directly with 986.4 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days. The district of Coburg reports the lowest value with 210.2. So far, the new wave has not been particularly noticeable in the intensive care units. According to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, 372 Covid patients were in intensive care units in Bavaria on Thursday morning. That’s just over a third of the peak from the Delta Wave. However, there is typically a time lag between infection and intensive care.
Vaccination fraud still rampant
Wednesday, January 19, 6:55 p.m.: Even if a decrease was initially observed in January – cases of counterfeit vaccination certificates are still part of everyday life for the police in the Free State. The Ministry of the Interior announced that there were a total of 4066 reports of document offenses in connection with the corona vaccination topic by Monday. Around 5,500 vaccination cards and certificates were secured. However, far more people in Bavaria probably have an incorrect vaccination status: “Unfortunately, we have to assume that there is a large number of unreported cases,” said the ministry.
338 cases were registered in October, 1070 in November and 1979 in December. It was about counterfeit stickers, certificates, labels, stamps and proof of recovery. The ministry said there had been a sharp increase since November 24 in particular. On that day, a new set of corona rules came into force that was intended to close gaps in criminal liability in the area. Since then, the submission of false health certificates at pharmacies or at work has also been prosecuted – previously the law only specifically mentioned “authorities or insurance companies”.
In the first two weeks of January, the police recorded a decline again with 379 cases. According to the findings of the State Criminal Police Office, a large proportion of the counterfeit vaccination cards are offered on the Internet. This can be on the dark web, but also “openly” on channels such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook. There are also individual cases in which potential “customers” were specifically recruited at corona-related events. Occasionally, doctors were also caught issuing certificates without having vaccinated their patients. Only last Thursday there was a large-scale raid in four federal states on around 100 patients of a Swabian family doctor. Around 80 vaccination cards were secured, and blood was drawn from around 50 suspects to clarify the vaccination status.
In Lower Bavaria, two doctors have been suspected of falsifying the vaccination certificates of opponents of vaccination and administering diluted vaccine to other patients since December. In October, investigators arrested fraudsters in Munich who are said to have used the IT infrastructure of a pharmacy to produce fake vaccination certificates – more than 500 within a month alone. “Our police officers are specially trained to recognize fake vaccination certificates,” the ministry said.