Status: 07/23/2021 2:20 p.m.
In view of the increasing number of infections, the countries are pressing for an early meeting with Chancellor Merkel. Prime Minister Schwesig calls for a clear course for those returning to travel, Lower Saxony wants to take greater account of vaccination progress.
The corona numbers are increasing, the willingness to vaccinate has decreased – and the school holidays are drawing to a close in the first federal states: So there is a lot to discuss about Corona, and some countries are pushing for this. The meeting of Chancellor Angela Merkel planned for the end of August should be brought forward, demands Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Government spokesman Andreas Timm said that advice should be given in particular to the spread of the delta mutation and the vaccination of young people.
At the end of June, Schwesig asked the federal government, together with the medical experts and the Standing Vaccination Commission, to present a strategy for vaccinating children and adolescents from the age of twelve by the beginning of August, Timm said. The regulations for return travelers should also be discussed. “It must be prevented that there is a significant increase in the numbers after the summer vacation.”
The concern about the return travelers
Schwesig had complained that the federal and state governments had not agreed on stricter regulations for travelers returning from Corona risk areas abroad at the end of June. The corona infection numbers were also low in summer 2020, and then return travelers would have entered the virus again.
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) spoke out on Wednesday in favor of bringing forward the Prime Minister’s Conference. The State Chancellery in Hanover confirmed this demand. “We quickly need new standards that also take into account vaccination progress, among other things,” said a government spokeswoman in Hanover. “There is a need for action.” Lower Saxony was interested in an approach coordinated among the federal states.
At the same time, the spokeswoman denied media reports that the red-black state government is planning to raise the upper incidence limits in the Corona step-by-step plan in order to allow more freedom despite increasing incidences. However, it should be avoided that with rising incidence values, areas are soon affected by restrictions “that have nothing to do with the development of the infection process”.
“Solving the autumn brain teaser”
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is also striving for new assessment standards for future corona requirements. In addition to the incidence, the vaccinations carried out and the hospital numbers must also be used as a basis for the decisions. “We don’t want another lockdown, but we have to solve the autumn brain teaser.”
Söder announced that he would coordinate with the Union-led federal states and Baden-Württemberg, which is ruled by the Greens.
Vaccination appeal by the Chancellor
Merkel had warned at her last summer press conference that Germany was on the way to a fourth wave and appealed to people to get vaccinated. An appeal that is not without reason: The vaccination rate in Germany has recently slowed down – on Thursday 565,235 people were vaccinated, on Thursday a week ago it was 758,572.
The involvement of family and company doctors, who initially pushed for the delivery of vaccines, have not been able to increase the pace in the past few days. The federal states and municipalities now want to offer more vaccinations in everyday life.
Health Minister Jens Spahn had said that the seven-day incidence could rise to over 400 in September and over 800 in October if the current pace of new infections continues. Therefore, there are currently preparations in federal and state districts for a new agreement, from which limit values corona restrictions should apply again in the future. These were actually not feared again until autumn at the earliest.