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Doctors and economic experts are calling for the crown’s restrictions to be extended beyond January 10, and yet there are voices even among the cautious who believe that limited easing may be possible. The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach, who is one of the supporters of the strict closure, speaks in favor of reopening kindergartens and primary schools from the second half of January under certain conditions. “The prerequisite would be for all other grade levels to alternately split and receive face-to-face and digital lessons. Or face-to-face teaching is completely suspended, “Lauterbach told the Rheinische Post in Düsseldorf.
However, he rejects a general opening of schools. It is scientifically proven that children from the age of twelve are as contagious as adults. Then there would be the risk that the target value of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week will not be achieved despite the closure. “So that would be a big mistake,” he said. The pandemic is considered manageable below this value. The national average is currently above 140.
The prime ministers of the federal states want to discuss with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on January 5 how things will continue after January 10 with the measures that were initially limited in time. Before that, the education ministers will discuss the situation in schools on Monday. Above all, they consider opening kindergartens and elementary schools a priority, because digital supervision is not possible and younger students are still too dependent for digital lessons even with the technology available.
The effects of Christmas and New Year’s Eve are not yet predictable
Overall, however, scientists caution against extensive relaxation of the shutdown, which has been in effect since December 14, with strict contact limits and extensive closures of shops, leisure facilities, restaurants and hotels.
The president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Divi), Uwe Janssens, even considers the goal too lax. “We, intensive care physicians, urgently advise against any relaxation of the prospect of an incidence of less than 25 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week,” he told the “Rheinische Post” in Düsseldorf. »We will not see in hospitals until the end of next week how much Christmas has contributed to the spread of Covid-19. The effects of New Year’s Eve will be much later. “He does not expect to relax in the intensive care units until the summer.
The president of the Marburger Bund doctors union, Susanne Johna, would like “an extension of the contact restrictions in the most uniform way possible”, as she told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “The health system urgently needs relief that can only be achieved by extending measures to restrict contact.”
The economy also warns
Economists and economic experts also caution against relaxation. “For the economy, it should be the top priority that the second wave of infections is limited as quickly as possible,” said the president of the German Institute for Economic Research, Marcel Fratzscher of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “Economic relaxation now may benefit some in the short term, but it would harm everyone in the long term.”
The doctors union, Johna, also reduced hopes for a quick relaxation by starting vaccines. “Despite all the optimism, it should be clear to us that the vaccine can hardly be expected to provide relief from the infection process, at least in the first three months of the new year.”
Because the vaccine is scarce. The federal government expects up to 12 million doses of the only approved vaccine from manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer, which could vaccinate six million people, by the first quarter. In addition, it awaits the approval of the preparation by Moderna already next week. To defeat the pandemic in Germany, immunization of at least 50 million people is considered necessary.
In response to accusations that the federal government had to ask for more from the Biontech vaccine, the health expert of the Green parliamentary group, Kordula Schulz-Asche, noted in the “Welt” that the Biontech vaccine was only in the testing phase. in summer.
