The Bundestag and the Prime Minister’s Conference want to initiate new measures against the corona pandemic this Thursday. All news on the subject in star-Ticker.
10:23 a.m.: Buschmann calls criticism of new corona regulations “untruthful”
The FDP politician Marco Buschmann has sharply rejected the Union’s criticism of the planned new regulation of the corona measures. “The claim that the new package of measures leaves the states defenseless is objectively wrong,” said the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag. “It was right from the start because we put very robust measures on a legally secure footing right from the start.” The criticism is partly untruthful. “Corona has always been dangerous and it has always been our common stance to resolutely fight this danger. Don’t claim the opposite, dear colleagues from the CDU / CSU,” he said. “We have expanded the package of measures and now it even includes contact restrictions in public and private areas. Anyone who thinks that this is not a sharp sword against the pandemic – I don’t know how to help.”
9.45 a.m.: Important points according to the proposed resolution for the Bund-Länder-Round disputed
In the country consultations on measures to counter the dramatic corona development, there is still no agreement on important points shortly before the meeting with Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). It is still unclear from what hospitalization rate there should be access restrictions for unvaccinated people or, for example, test obligations for vaccinated and convalescent people (2G plus). This emerges from a proposed resolution available to the German Press Agency, which was sent to the other states from North Rhine-Westphalia on the night of Wednesday evening after deliberations with the heads of state chancellery. NRW is currently the country where the Prime Minister’s Conference is chaired. It was also unclear how the extension of the epidemic situation of national scope, called for by the Union side, would continue. In the Bundestag, the Union parliamentary group submitted an application for an extension, but it was given little chance of success.
According to the draft resolution, everyone who has not yet been vaccinated will be called on to be vaccinated. The federal government should promise to continue to support vaccination centers and other organized vaccination options until April 30th. In old people’s and nursing homes, employees and visitors should have to present a negative test every day, and a self-test should also be possible. In addition, 3G rules in the workplace as well as in buses and trains are considered necessary in the draft. Citizen tests should remain free, with the federal government bearing the costs. For companies, the bridging aid III Plus should be extended beyond the turn of the year until March 31, 2022.
9.45 a.m.: Göring-Eckardt rejects criticism of corona plans
Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt has rejected the CDU / CSU’s criticism of the traffic light parties’ corona plans. “The legal situation that you are suing here exists,” she said to a previous speaker from the CSU during a debate in the Bundestag. However, tougher measures to combat pandemics have not been implemented by many countries. “If you want to celebrate Carnival on the one hand and say ‘That was really great’ and the day after tomorrow says ‘But we have a huge emergency’, then that’s not credible for me from North Rhine-Westphalia,” said Göring-Eckardt. The measures now planned went much further than the previous ones. NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) has repeatedly criticized the plans of the traffic light groups as not going far enough. The plans of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP are intended to create a different legal basis for conditions if the “epidemic situation of national scope” previously determined by the Bundestag expires on November 25th.
9.35 a.m.: SPD defends new infection protection law against criticism from the Union
The SPD has defended the planned new Infection Protection Act against criticism from the Union in the federal and state levels. The new regulation creates a legally secure framework for further measures, said the SPD health expert Sabine Dittmar at the start of the final debate in the Bundestag. With the planned new regulation, the federal states would have more options for efficient action than with the current legal situation.
Opinion: expectations of the Merkel round
9.30 a.m.: According to the Union, traffic light plans do not do justice to the drama of the corona
Union faction vice Stephan Stracke has sharply criticized the plans of the SPD, Greens and FDP in the Corona crisis. This would not do justice to the drama of the situation, said the CSU politician in the Bundestag. The fourth wave hit Germany with full force, the country is facing a difficult winter. In large parts, hospitals have already reached their limits. In this situation it would be a mistake to let the “epidemic situation of national scope” determined by the Bundestag expire on November 25th. The plans of the SPD, Greens and FDP are intended to create a different legal basis for conditions. The traffic light coalition is making its first mistake. The catalog of measures would be shortened with the plans. “That can’t go well,” said Stracke.
5.05 a.m.: Handwerk does not consider 3G controls to be practical everywhere
The trade doubts that the mandatory 3G controls planned in the corona crisis at the workplace are practicable everywhere in the industry. For many rather small companies, the control effort should remain comparatively manageable, said Hans Peter Wollseifer, President of the Central Association of German Crafts, the “Welt”. “But in companies such as building cleaning or in the building trade, where most employees drive directly to the construction site and then often to objects and work locations that change on a daily basis, it should be extremely difficult.” Wollseifer: “How do you want to control that? It is still completely unclear how these required daily controls can be carried out and verified pragmatically.”
3.40 a.m.: Districts are calling for a federal-state round to require vaccination in nursing homes
Before the corona crisis meeting of the federal and state governments, the districts called for the rapid introduction of mandatory vaccination for employees in nursing homes. It was “high time for certain professional groups to be imposed,” said the President of the German District Association, Reinhard Sager, to the newspapers of the Funke media group. This is “in view of 15 million unvaccinated people, a seven-day incidence of over 300 and a regionally worsening situation” necessary. The district president demanded that the other employees such as cooks or cleaning staff be included in the compulsory vaccination in addition to the nursing staff. They also played a role in the infection process, said Sager.
1.00 am: RKI boss Wieler: “We have never been so worried”
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