Corona pandemic: Partial vaccination obligation without consequence? | tagesschau.de

A nationwide facility-related corona vaccination has been in force for a month. In many places, there are still no consequences for unvaccinated staff. The evaluation of the health authorities is ongoing.

In Berlin, the State Office for Health and Social Affairs is still evaluating the information received from hospitals, practices and care facilities. They reported the vaccination status of their employees last month. Since mid-March, staff have had to prove they have had a double vaccination against Corona, that they have recovered or have a certificate. Anyone who cannot or does not want to do this has had to expect a ban on entry or fines – theoretically.

The Berlin University Hospital Charité has already forwarded the information on unvaccinated staff. The vaccination rate here is 94 percent. According to the Berlin Senate Department for Science, Health, Care and Equal Opportunities, the vaccination rate in Berlin hospitals is between 82 and 100 percent, and around 90 percent for employees in care facilities.

So far, around 4,700 people have been recorded in Berlin who have not presented their employer with proof of vaccination or recovery or a medical certificate of a medical contraindication to a SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. In the case of around 120 employees, the employer has doubts as to the authenticity or correctness of the information provided.

Around 3,900 of these people have direct contact with members of vulnerable groups. Around 740 people received an initial vaccination, provided proof of an agreed vaccination appointment or declared their willingness to be vaccinated at short notice.

These figures only represent an interim status, explained the Berlin Senate Administration. Numerous other reports are still being statistically recorded by the State Office for Health and Social Affairs.

So far no legal consequences

The responsible health authorities now have to weigh up the risk of infection and the risk of non-supply. In the Berlin Charité, no regulatory consequences have yet been enforced by the health department. There are still not enough and unvaccinated staff working here.

rbbResearch shows that other large university hospitals are still waiting for reactions from the health authorities. This also applies to the University Hospital Gießen and Marburg with a vaccination rate of 97 percent or the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein with around 99 percent.

The Munich University Hospital has also not received any feedback from the responsible health department in Munich. Here the overall rate is only 93 percent. 390 employees had to be reported.

At the request of rbb the authority reports that it is not yet clear how many employees in Munich’s health facilities are actually not vaccinated. In addition, one must evaluate how many of the reported employees are “double reports”, i.e. the employees work in several facilities that have made a report. So far there have been no regulatory consequences for employees in the healthcare facilities concerned.

Number of jobseekers and unemployed increases

There is constant speculation about the extent to which facility-related compulsory vaccination could further exacerbate the already tense staffing situation in the healthcare sector. While the authorities are not yet taking any action, employees have presumably given a (symbolic) sign.

This is indicated by current figures from the Federal Employment Agency. Between December 2021 and March 14, 2022, almost 118,000 people from the “Health and Social Affairs” sector registered as jobseekers. Among them are around 41,000 nurses. In the comparable period before the outbreak of the pandemic, from December 2019 to March 2020, there were significantly fewer. A total of around 74,000 people, including around 21,000 nursing staff.

It cannot be clarified to what extent the persons who have registered as jobseekers in the past four months have actually become unemployed. However, these reports did not result in a sharp increase in the shortage of personnel.

Unemployment reports are more relevant for this assessment. There is only a small increase in this group: In the months December 2021 to March 2022, 3000 people who previously worked in the health and social services reported more unemployed than in the reference period 2019/2020. This corresponds to an increase of five percent. Among them were 500 nurses, three percent more than before the pandemic.