live blog
Status: 02/02/2022 03:58 a.m
In several federal states, the judiciary wants to step up action against Nazi symbols during corona protests. The AOK boss Reimann suggested linking the vaccination data with those of the insured. The developments in the live blog.
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Dobrindt for opening perspectives soon
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt called for decisions on opening prospects in the corona pandemic in February. The hospital occupancy must be the guiding principle for politics. “It is a plea for more personal responsibility. Measures such as the obligation to wear masks are still needed. But we have to present a perspective of gradually reducing the restrictions in everyday life – in retail, in gastronomy, in culture, sports, leisure”, said the CSU politician of the “world”.
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DKG boss: loosening when the omicron wave survived
The head of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gass, welcomed a discussion about easing the corona measures. At the same time, he warned: “But that doesn’t mean that there should be openings now.” There can only be easing when the peak of the omicron wave has passed and you can see that the hospitals are not overloaded. “It’s looking good at the moment,” said Gass of the “Rheinische Post”.
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Buschmann hopes that many conditions will be lifted in March
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann has announced that many corona restrictions will be lifted in March. “I hope that many protective measures can be withdrawn in March,” said the FDP politician to the “Rheinische Post”. The prerequisite is that, as forecast by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), “the number of cases will fall again from mid-February”. New virus variants that completely change the situation again should not appear in the short term either.
When asked what easing he could currently imagine, Buschmann said: “For example, we have to question whether 2G in retail is still justifiable.”
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Tonga: Corona outbreak and lockdown
The corona pandemic has also reached the Pacific state of Tonga as one of the last places in the world. Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said an infection had been detected in two port workers. Therefore, a lockdown comes into force. The workers had helped distribute international relief supplies that reached the island nation after the devastating volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami.
The Matangi Tonga news website reported that authorities had tested 50 dockers for the virus. Two of the tests were positive. For the time being, the lockdown is indefinite, and the health authorities want to provide information about the status of things every two days, it said.
Since the pandemic began, Tonga had reported just a single infection in a missionary returning from Africa who tested positive in October after flying back via New Zealand.
Tonga after the volcanic eruption: Authorities had already expressed concerns to aid organizations that an outbreak of the virus could pose a greater threat to Tonga than the tsunami.
Image: dpa
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Wüst warns of the end of corona measures
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst has warned the federal government that corona protection measures will soon be over. “If the Bundestag does not act, all measures to protect against the virus will expire at the end of March 19, after a one-time extension at the latest,” Wüst told the editorial network Germany, referring to the corresponding time limit in the Infection Protection Act and the only one-off possibility of an extension of the measures by three months. “Then the states and municipalities would be left with no protection options,” says Wüst. He called for a quick guarantee of basic protection. “In view of the hoped-for development of the Omicron variant, prospects for gradual openings are possible, but must be secured,” said the CDU politician.
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Justice takes action against Holocaust relativization
According to government information, the judiciary in several federal states is increasingly taking action against Holocaust-relating symbols and statements during corona protests. “Attaching the yellow star to oneself and associating this inhuman symbol of the murder of millions of Jewish fellow citizens with one’s own vaccination status is not only tasteless, but in my opinion it constitutes a criminal offense of hate speech,” said Bremen Justice Senator Claudia Schilling Editorial network Germany. It is therefore absolutely correct “that the Bremen public prosecutor’s office generally accepts the initial suspicion of incitement to hatred and investigates accordingly.”
The Bavarian Ministry of Justice also pointed out that statements comparing state corona measures with the Holocaust can in particular constitute a criminal offense of incitement to hatred. An information letter was therefore sent to the Bavarian police associations “in which they were asked to submit relevant cases to the responsible public prosecutor’s office to examine the initial suspicion of a criminal offense,” the ministry told the editorial network Germany.
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BioNTech/Pfizer Apply for US Registration for Infants
The German company BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer have applied for emergency approval of their corona vaccine for children under five in the United States. Pfizer said the relevant data had been sent to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The application should be completed in the coming days. The emergency approval should apply to children from six months. A vaccine dose should therefore contain one tenth of the active ingredient in a dose for adults
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AOK: Link corona vaccinations with insured person data
The chairwoman of the board of directors of the AOK federal association, Carola Reimann, proposed linking the data on corona vaccinations with those of the health insurance. “With other vaccinations, vaccination data is also linked to routine data from the health insurance companies. In this way, the health insurance companies would be able to support proper corona vaccination surveillance,” Reimann told the “Ärzte Zeitung”. The connection of vaccination and insured data is not rocket science. A separate register is not required. In the future, the corona vaccination will have to flow into the vaccination canon of standard care anyway, according to the AOK boss.