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More than 13,000 new infections in Russia
10.11 am: Russia reports 13,433 new corona cases, bringing the total number of recorded infections to around 4.14 million. The number of known deaths related to the virus rises by 470 to 82,396, authorities say. After the United States, India and Brazil, Russia has the highest number of infections in the world.
China donates 200,000 doses of vaccine to Algeria
9.57 am: China donates 200,000 doses of crown vaccine to its African ally Algeria. The People’s Republic will continue to provide the country with the support it needs, Chinese Ambassador to Algeria Li Lianhe told the Algerian news agency APS. According to the country’s Health Ministry, vaccines from the manufacturer Sinopharm should arrive in Algeria in February.
China and Algeria are close allies. With the onset of the global corona pandemic, the People’s Republic already supported the North African country with medical personnel, and other African countries also received donations of vaccines. Algeria started its vaccination program in January and is also using the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and the AstraZeneca vaccines. According to the Algerian authorities, negotiations are currently under way with Russia to produce the vaccine in Algeria.
Algeria, with a population of 44 million people, has so far recorded 3,000 crown-related deaths. Around 111,500 people fell ill with Covid-19.
Logistics association calls for uniform rules for entry
9.33 am: The associations of logistics (BGL), retail trade (HDE) and the fruit trade (DFHV) advocate for a relaxation of border controls and for uniform rules of the federal and state governments. Without improvements, there will be bottlenecks in the supply of the population. “It is by no means understandable why the federal government does not allow freight traffic to move freely in the same way as the first Corona wave, but rather leads to the collapse of supply,” says the spokesman for the board of the Federal Association for the Transport of Goods. Logistics and Disposal (BGL), Dirk Engelhardt.
HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth emphasizes that supply chains must not be broken by blocking borders. “We need permeable transport chains, especially in the fresh food sector.”
Bavaria rejects Altmaier’s plans for funds for difficult situations
9.27 am: The Free State of Bavaria does not want to participate in the special crown fund for companies raised by Federal Minister of Economy Peter Altmaier (CDU). “We reject a new hardship program of the federal government at the expense of the states,” said Bavarian Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) of the German Press Agency in Munich.
Rather, existing federal aid programs for businesses suffering from the pandemic should ultimately be designed in such a way that so-called hardship cases do not arise in the first place. »We do not need additional bureaucracy through new special programs, but ultimately the disbursement of promised funds. What the federal government has promised, it must keep ”, emphasized Füracker.
On Tuesday, after an economic summit, Altmaier surprisingly announced a “difficult situations fund” for companies that do not exactly meet the auxiliary criteria above or where there are no special conditions in certain industries. The federal government speaks of a volume of 1,500 million euros. Altmaier has yet to coordinate the fund with Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD).
“It is good and correct that the federal government wants to help all affected companies, but it is not good that federal programs are apparently so badly thought out that companies like brewery inns are being forgotten,” Füracker said.
And something else is unpleasant in the Bavarian state government: “Even several days after the surprising announcement by the Federal Minister of the Economy about the so-called new fund for difficult situations, nothing concrete is known. Announcing co-financing from the federal states without first informing the federal states is not good cooperation, but bad style. “
Hotel sales collapsed by more than a third in 2020
8.15 am: Hotels, restaurants and dining rooms suffered a record drop in Corona 2020. After ten consecutive years of growth, sales in the German hotel industry fell 36.6 percent (real: 39) percent, according to the Federal Office of Statistics. Therefore, the decline was even steeper than previously assumed. The reasons are the closure in spring and containment measures at the end of the year in the fight against the pandemic. Restaurants and pubs had to close and are only allowed to offer service outside the home, while hotels and guesthouses can only accept business travelers. In December alone, actual sales were 72.0 percent below the level of February 2020, the month before the outbreak of the corona pandemic in Germany.
Brazil exceeds ten million infected
7.45 am: After the United States and India, Brazil became the third country to have passed the ten million mark infected by corona. This arises from data from the Brasilia Ministry of Health. As a result, there have been 51,879 new infections since Wednesday, bringing the total to 10,030,626 cases. The number of deaths increased from 1,367 to 243,457 in 24 hours. Brazil has 210 million inhabitants and 24 times the size of Germany.
Family doctors want to vaccinate from the second trimester
07.00 am: German medical practices want to start vaccination throughout the country from the beginning of the second trimester. “We are preparing to start vaccinating across the board in doctors’ consultations by early April at the latest,” says Deputy Director of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Stephan Hofmeister of the publishing network in Germany. . According to this, an additional million people can get vaccinated in doctors’ offices every day, five million a week. Otherwise, there will be at least a million unvaccinated doses by mid-April.
Again, more than 9,000 new corona infections in Germany
6.30 am: In Germany, more than 9,000 new infections with the corona virus were recorded in one day. As announced by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), citing data from the health authorities, 9113 new cases of infection were registered in 24 hours. Despite the ongoing closures, the number is only slightly below the value of 9,860 new infections last Friday.
In addition, according to the RKI, there were another 508 deaths in 24 hours in relation to a coronavirus infection (previous week: 556). The total number of registered corona deaths in Germany rose to 67,206.
The total number of coronavirus infections detected in Germany since the start of the pandemic amounted to 2,369,719. The RKI estimated the number of people recovered from a corona infection at around 2,176 million.
The so-called seven-day incidence was 56.8 on Friday. It sank only minimally below the previous day’s value, which was 57.1. The seven-day incidence is the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants during this period. The goal of the federal government is to bring the value below 35.
Biontech-Pfizer works at 85 percent after the first dose
6:20 am: Quality has its price, they say. After knowing that Biontech and Pfizer should have offered their vaccine for more than 50 euros per dose (finally it was agreed around 16 euros), the vaccine now shines with a good performance. The Pfizer and Biontech vaccine shows 85 percent effectiveness against coronavirus after the first dose, the medical journal “The Lancet” reported, citing a study from Israel. Therefore, the investigation was carried out on more than 7,000 workers in the Israeli health system.
Justice Minister reminds countries of banning excessive crown rules
5.45 am: Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht has asked state governments to investigate whether her Corona measures continue to be proportionate. “Federal states must check whether the measures currently in force are still necessary for them or if softer measures such as the implementation of tests or the application of hygiene concepts are sufficient,” said the SPD politician of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “We have to closely watch how things are developing, day after day and week after week,” Lambrecht said. “You have to justify the ordering of restrictions and not their relaxation.” The courts would watch this very closely. “This precise control is not only a requirement of the rule of law, but also contributes to the acceptance of the decisions of the Crown in the population,” said the politician. “Interferences with fundamental rights must always be proportionate and well founded.”
Deferred loans: decrease the number of foreclosures
5.30 am: Despite the crown crisis, the number of foreclosures in Germany has decreased. According to an investigation by the specialized publishing house Argetra, last year proceedings were opened for 14,853 properties with a market value of a good 3,100 million euros. In the same period last year, 17,600 houses, apartments or land were registered with a market value of more than 3,400 million euros. Persistently low interest rates, many deferred loans from banks and short-term job benefits would have prevented numerous foreclosures in the pandemic, Argetra experts write in a report. In 2020, an average of 36 out of 100,000 households were affected by foreclosure (previous year: 42). For the evaluation, Argetra has analyzed the dates of the foreclosures in the 500 local courts. However, only about half of the foreclosure auction proceedings that have been opened end in court. The other affected properties would be sold in advance.
Leftists demand that the federal government waive wages
05.00 am: For many people, the crown crisis is an economic disaster, but members of the federal government have not had to accept any cuts so far. According to the left, ministers and Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) should now earn less. Like the allowances of members of the Bundestag, the salaries of members of the government should also decrease, said the leader of the parliamentary group Dietmar Bartsch. “Wages are falling and people are suffering from the crisis,” he said. “It takes modesty and modesty. Anything else would be a catastrophic sign for citizens. “
