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reAccording to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany is facing a difficult phase in the fight against the crown pandemic. “We are facing very, very difficult months,” said the CDU politician, according to the newspaper “Bild” on Sunday evening at an exchange conference with the leaders of the CDU parliamentary group in the federal states. The Chancellor expects that the number of infections will continue to increase dramatically and hopes that at least until February no major events abroad will be possible either.
According to “Bild”, Merkel was concerned about the next Prime Minister’s Conference, which is scheduled for Wednesday to Friday under the Berlin presidency. He doesn’t have “that good feeling,” the chancellor said. “It can’t go on like this.”
On Monday, Merkel will again consult with the responsible federal ministers in Corona’s cabinet. The heads of government of the federal states will meet on Friday for their annual conference; Berlin has held the presidency since the beginning of October. In recent days, there have been repeated calls for more uniformity in crown requirements across the country, for example from Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) told the “Rheinische Post” (Monday): “We need a uniform catalog of measures. Citizens want transparency, they want to know what happens when their district is classified as red, yellow or green. “
Classes begin in eight federal states after fall break
Eight states are starting school again after fall break. The number of infections increased considerably during the non-school period. Corona requirements continue to apply in many places or have been tightened. In Berlin, for example, high school students, as well as all vocational schools and high schools, are required to wear masks in class.
The chairwoman of the Conference of Education Ministers, Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Education Stefanie Hubig (SPD), recently emphasized that schools and kindergartens are not drivers of the pandemic. However, the president of the Association of German Teachers, Hans-Peter Meidinger, warned that the influence of schools on the infection rate could be greater than many believed.
Studies suggested this was the case for children under the age of ten, Meidinger told the Germany publishing network (RND / Monday). But it is reckless to pretend that this also automatically applies to 13- or 14-year-old students who will soon be adults and will have innumerable contacts. “The school is the largest daily mass event in Germany with more than ten million participants. I advise you to be very careful, ”Meidinger said.
Can a partial blockade slow the spread of the virus?
Merkel had once again emphasized over the weekend that the order of the day was for everyone to reduce the number of contacts. The SPD health expert, Karl Lauterbach, spoke at the “Passauer Neue Presse” (Monday) in favor of a “very short and limited time partial lockdown” to contain the virus. “Knowing fewer friends, fewer visits to restaurants, less going to the movies and sporting events.
Maintaining distance, hygiene and wearing masks only without limiting the number of contacts is no longer enough. Citizens should refrain from larger gatherings and celebrations in their homes, ”Lauterbach said. “At this time, we could still contain the significant increase in the number of infections. The window closes clearly, ”Lauterbach said.
More home offices for employees
Having fewer contacts, that is what the leadership of the SPD also preaches. “We urgently appeal to the population to minimize contacts and adhere to known hygiene measures,” party leaders Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans and Lauterbach declared in a joint statement to the RND.
Schools, kindergartens and businesses must remain open. “For this to be successful, contacts here need to be limited as much as possible, in schools through reduced and rectified teaching models, with digital support, and at work through a larger home office.”
Call for personal liability
The police union (GdP) filed two appeals. The vice president of the GdP, Jörg Radek, called on citizens in the “Rheinische Post” (Monday) to take more personal responsibility, to stand down, comply with the conditions and not call the police at the “slightest irritation”. And the administration should formulate “non-contradictory conditions”, “otherwise the work of the police will become unnecessarily difficult,” Radek warned.
New course contact follow-up warning
In view of the rapid increase in the number of infections, many health authorities are reaching their limits and can barely keep up with the location of contacts. Considerations of targeting only risk groups are strongly opposed by the president of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch.
A contact tracing task by health authorities would be a “public oath of disclosure,” Brysch said of the “Rheinische Post” (Monday). He demanded that the Bundestag take up the issue. “It should also be clarified here why it is not possible to make the public health service crisis-proof,” Brysch said.
