Status: 08/31/2021 7:12 am
Should employers be able to know whether their employees have been vaccinated against Corona? Health Minister Spahn considers a temporary change in the law to be sensible. The seven-day incidence fell for the first time since the beginning of July.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn can imagine that employers can ask employees about their corona vaccination status. He was torn between whether the law should be changed so that employers could ask for at least the next six months, the CDU politician said on Monday evening in the ARD-Broadcast Hard but fair. That’s how it is done in the restaurant.
When asked what his attitude towards it was, Spahn said: “I am increasingly tending towards yes.” He argued: “If everyone in the open-plan office is vaccinated, I can handle it differently than if 50 percent are not vaccinated.”
Spahn again refused a vaccination requirement for certain occupational groups such as the nursing professions. It is his concern that “a compulsory vaccination – also based on professional groups – does not make it easier in the end that we all keep it, but that we will lose many along the way”.
Criticism of the occupational safety and health ordinance
Employers criticize the fact that, according to plans by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, the question of vaccination status is de facto prohibited. According to the draft of the Federal Ministry of Labor for a new occupational health and safety ordinance, employers should also have to enable corona vaccinations during working hours.
The President of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations, Rainer Dulger, announced on Monday that the federal government should stop creating confusion. “Companies and businesses now need a clear message that they can inquire about the vaccination status of their employees in order to ensure the necessary measures to protect the health of all of their employees.”
“In order to get the pandemic completely under control, all areas of the economy must now be able to ask their employees about their vaccination status,” demanded the chief executive of the employers’ association Südwestmetall, Peer-Michael Dick. “It is absurd that companies still have to offer free corona tests, but are not allowed to ask about the vaccination.” Dick described it as unreasonable that employees should in future be paid for vaccinations. The occupational health and safety ordinance is to be passed in the federal cabinet on Wednesday.
Incidence decreased slightly
Meanwhile, the seven-day incidence fell slightly on Tuesday for the first time since the beginning of July. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), it is now 74.8 – the previous day the value was 75.8, a week ago 58.0.
The health authorities in Germany reported 5,750 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. A week ago, the value for Germany was 5747 infections. The number of deaths during this period was given as 60.
The total number of corona infections recorded in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic increased to 3,942,856, and the number of deaths to a total of 92,200. According to the RKI, 3,738,000 people have recovered from an infection.
Lauterbach for uniform guidelines
The incidence has so far been the basis for many corona restrictions in the pandemic, for example as part of the federal emergency brake that expired at the end of June. In the future, other values such as hospital admissions will also be given greater consideration.
The SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach demanded the same guide values for all of Germany for hospital deliveries of corona patients. He is in favor of “that we set nationwide uniform hospitalization rates. Otherwise there is a risk of a patchwork quilt,” Lauterbach told the newspapers of the Funke media group. At the moment, the value from which it could become critical is “very different from region to region”. There could therefore be considerable distortions.