According to the national responsible against the covid, “all Germany is a single and huge outbreak”
The situation in Germany in the face of the new wave of coronavirus, with more than 50,000 new daily infections for several days, is a “national emergency,” said the acting Federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, who acknowledged that soft drink vaccinations and the immunization of those who have so far resisted the puncture will not be enough to stop the fourth wave of the pandemic. “The whole of Germany is one huge outbreak,” said Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), in a joint press conference, in which he commented that it is not enough to close the gaps that remain between those who are not. vaccinated and the application of restrictions that exclude those who have already been immunized. Spahn pointed out that only by reducing personal contacts can the spread of the virus be tackled and he acknowledged that “we are in a situation in which nothing can be excluded”, nor the possibility of ordering the confinement of those who continue without get vaccinated.
The German Health Minister stressed that, given the shortage of beds in intensive care, patients are already being transferred between hospitals in different regions and warned that in states such as Bavaria only 3% of the places are currently free in those special units. Spahn acknowledged that in isolated cases German patients have been transferred to foreign hospitals. The conservative politician was hopeful about the relaunch of the vaccination campaign. Meanwhile, there are already 45,000 medical consultations participating in the operation, compared to 20,000 in the summer, while the supply and application of vaccine doses increases progressively. Last week there were 4 and this will be 6 million. However, he acknowledged that “we all hoped to face a different winter than the one that is coming” when the campaign to immunize the population began and called again those who resist being vaccinated to do so. 90% of covid-19 patients in German ICUs were not vaccinated.
Wieler, for his part, called on the population to stay in their homes and avoid all personal contact that is not really necessary. In the meantime, the announced conservative blockade did not take place and the Bundesrat, the German upper house, approved this morning the reform of the Law for Protection against Infections that a day before had received the green light from the Bundestag, the federal parliament, to initiative of the parties negotiating the new governing coalition in Berlin – Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP) -. The law, which will come into force next week, provides for more powers for the federal states in the fight against the pandemic and a wide range of measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
Among the new rules is the obligation to go to work with a certificate of vaccination or having healed, but also the option of being tested daily to detect a possible contagion for those who do not want to be immunized. Teleworking is expressly cited as an option that companies must prioritize, also obliged to control whether their employees come to work vaccinated under penalty of a fine. Workers who refuse to comply with the regulations can be suspended from employment and land and even fired. In homes for the elderly and chronically ill, daily tests for staff and visitors will be mandatory. The same rules apply to public transport in the event of epidemic outbreaks.
However, with the approval of the new law, it is the federal states that decide on contact restrictions and the total or partial closure of shops and gastronomic venues, as well as on the suspension of events. Schools and nurseries will remain open in general lines and will only close in isolated cases when there are high infections. Religious services and demonstrations may not be prohibited in a general way. New in the catalog is the establishment of penalties for those who falsify or make use of false vaccination certificates. The former may be punished to up to two years in prison and the latter to penalties of up to one year in prison.
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