Chancellor Scholz relies on people’s understanding to enforce the planned mandatory vaccination. Family Minister Spiegel is promoting large-scale vaccination programs for children. All developments in the live blog.
02:03 am
Israeli study: Pfizer’s booster protects against Omikron
Israeli researchers have found that triple vaccination with the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech offers significant protection against the new Omikron variant. “The good news is that the booster dose increases protection 100-fold,” Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the infectious diseases division at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, told reporters. The protection is still about four times lower than that against the delta variant, but the overall good effect of the vaccine makes the researchers optimistic. So far, there has been no knowledge of whether and when the booster effect will also decrease, explains the researcher. Sheba conducted the study in collaboration with the Department of Health’s Central Virology Laboratory.
01:54 am
Heil wants to win more Hartz IV recipients for vaccination
Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil wants to increasingly win Hartz IV recipients for a corona vaccination. He asked the Federal Employment Agency and the federal states “to write to adult people with basic security benefits and to inform them about vaccination offers on site,” Heil told the newspapers of the Funke media group. The job centers should support the vaccination campaign as much as possible. “The letter campaigns are just starting on site,” said the SPD politician. There are already many campaigns in which mobile vaccination teams vaccinated on the premises or in the rooms of the job center.
01:54 am
Minister Spiegel is promoting large-scale vaccination programs for children
Federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel has called for vaccinations against the coronavirus to be offered to five to eleven-year-old children on a large scale. All over the country child-friendly vaccination offers are required, “in pediatrician practices, vaccination centers and with mobile vaccination teams,” said the Green politician in the newspapers of the Funke media group. The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) recommends vaccinating children aged five to eleven who have risk factors for a severe course of Covid-19 or relatives at high risk. In addition, parents can also have their healthy children vaccinated after they have been informed individually.
Spiegel called the start of the corona vaccinations for children from Monday a good signal. This is a great relief for many children between the ages of five and eleven and their families. “It is very important that families can get good information and advice and then hopefully come to the conclusion that their children should be vaccinated.”
01:54 am
Report: State ministers advise on the elimination of compulsory tests for people vaccinated three times
According to a media report, the health ministers of the federal states want to decide at their next meeting on Tuesday whether there should no longer be a nationwide test for people who have been vaccinated three times. “We countries need clarity quickly as to whether and from when the compulsory test can be waived for people who have been vaccinated three times. The Federal Minister of Health has promised me that he will make a proposal to the Conference of Health Ministers next Tuesday. This is not only medically sensible, but also provides one additional vaccination incentive, “said Klaus Holetschek, chairman of the conference of health ministers, of” Bild am Sonntag “.
01:54 am
Austria ends lockdown
The lockdown imposed due to the sudden increase in the number of corona infections in Austria is over almost everywhere across the country. In the federal states, the relaxation is different: In Burgenland, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, for example, visits to inns and hotel stays are again possible. In Salzburg, Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Lower Austria, the previous restaurant and accommodation restrictions are in effect until December 17th, in Vienna until December 20th.
In Austria, since November 22nd, you have only been allowed to leave your own apartment for urgent reasons such as visiting the doctor, working and shopping for groceries. This applied to vaccinated and unvaccinated people. The lockdown should continue to apply to the latter. Again and again tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the strict rules and the mandatory vaccination from February 1st, also yesterday in Vienna.
01:54 am
Scholz: “Want to hold the country together”
According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany is not divided into vaccinated and unvaccinated people. “The vast majority of citizens have had themselves vaccinated,” he told “Bild am Sonntag”. Many more wanted to do it soon because they had overcome their concerns, said the SPD politician. “Having different opinions doesn’t mean division. We can also argue.” The head of government emphasized: “I want to hold the country together. And so I am also the chancellor of the unvaccinated. I would like to convince them of the point of vaccination.”
Scholz advocated being flexible in taking countermeasures in the fight against the corona pandemic. “There must be no red lines, this pandemic has really shown us that. We always have to be ready to rethink, if the circumstances require it.” “Then you have to act quickly and decisively.” So that the hospitals despite the many corona patients can offer enough intensive care beds, we have just made a lot of money available “, he explained.
The Chancellor did not categorically reject a Christmas lockdown. In response to a corresponding question, he said: “The federal government and the states have just taken very rigid measures. We will check on a daily basis how they are being implemented and whether they are sufficient.”