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Great expectations in the direction of relaxation on the one hand, increasing the number of infections and virus variants on the other. It takes a long time to get a top result. However, the new opening plan was quickly criticized.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the prime ministers of the federal states discussed on Wednesday how to proceed in the crown crisis. After three months of lockdown in Germany, a relaxation is expected. In the evening, the federal and state governments interrupted deliberations due to many disagreements. Decisions have already been made.
The lockdown to fight the corona pandemic in Germany will run until March 28 in view of the continued high number of infections. However, there should be many opening options depending on the infection situation. Unlike previously planned, relaxation should no longer be linked to an incidence of 35 in seven days. Instead, a step-by-step plan was adopted that foresees openings with an incidence of 50 and even 100.
Merkel could only agree to this because an “emergency brake” with a value of 100 had been applied, she stressed after deliberations. It is now entering a “new phase of the pandemic.” If more than 100 people per 100,000 people become infected with the coronavirus in a week, relief measures should be taken after the decision.
Germany showed strength in its reaction to the second wave. “And now the task of politics is to take the next steps wisely. There must be steps towards openness and, at the same time, steps that must not push us back in the pandemic.” In Europe there are many examples of a “dramatic third wave”, said the Chancellor. “This danger, we must not fool ourselves, also exists for us.” Merkel emphasized, however: “The spring of 2021 will be different from the spring of a year ago.” Today, there are two important partners in the fight against the pandemic: vaccines and expanded testing options.
Merkel: testing should ensure initial steps
The Chancellor made it clear that the vaccination campaign must be accelerated. “We think we still have room for improvement here,” he said. It was agreed that at the end of March / beginning of April the GPs and specialized consultations will fully participate in the vaccination campaign. Free rapid tests, at least one per week for each citizen, should be done the next week. The federal government wants to cover the costs. Federal and state governments also expect companies, as a contribution to society as a whole, to offer their assistant employees at least one free quick test per week.
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) warned: “We have defeated the second wave and the third is underway.” The danger and the dimension of the third wave depend on each individual. “So we have to be very careful not to go carelessly into the next big closing. If a lot of people are talking about Easter, then Easter will be a good time or maybe the next closing.” That is why they have now decided on “a triad of caution, trust and responsibility.” A special regulation of contacts for Easter was not decided.
Berlin’s head of government, Michael Müller (SPD), stressed that it is perhaps in the “most sensitive phase” of the fight against the pandemic. “This is not a time for simple answers. It is no longer about opening or closing, but how we handle this situation very carefully.”
Criticism of vaccination and testing issues.
The chancellor spoke of tough negotiations in which she finally accepted that the incidence of 35, which was only set by the Prime Minister on February 10, was softened in favor of the value 50 due to the spread of virus variants. “It is a phase that is associated with a lot of hope,” he said of the initial steps.
There was criticism from the federal states on the issue of vaccination and testing. The Bavarian Prime Minister criticized the fact that Germany did not fare well compared to other countries in terms of vaccination and that there were not enough rapid tests available for widespread use. Berlin Mayor Müller contradicted reports that the Astrazeneca vaccine was being inoculated too slowly; Söder had previously criticized this.
The federal-state consultations revealed unusually violent discussions between Söder and Finance Minister and SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz. At the point of the business hardship fund, Scholz said, according to participants, that there could only be half the funding between the federal and state levels and no other agreement. Söder later said that Scholz was not chancellor. “You don’t have to smile so smurf. It’s not your money. I don’t like your tone at all,” added the CSU chief. In the SPD, Söder’s appearance was described as “embarrassing”. After the meeting, Söder added that the differences with Scholz had already been resolved.
In a protocol statement, the state of Saxony said the initial steps “were not justifiable.” Hamburg has also expressed reservations. The German Travel Association (DRV) criticized Corona’s decisions. “It is unacceptable that we are forced to stay locked up for more months due to lack of testing and the too slow vaccination process,” said DRV President Norbert Fiebig of the Funke media group.
North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Armin Laschet sees a change of perspective in the fight against the corona pandemic. The strategy is now: move from permanent closure to controlled security, he said early Thursday morning in Düsseldorf. Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) also welcomed the resolutions. “We cannot keep the country in a permanent blockade for months,” Hans said Thursday night in Saarbrücken. For this reason, the round “agreed to cautious attenuations, which are associated with an expansion of the tests.”
The left boss calls the results a “crown maze”
The leader of the left-wing parliamentary group, Dietmar Bartsch, harshly criticized the results of the main talks between the federal and state governments. In the newspapers of the Funke media group, Bartsch spoke of a “crown maze” and “confusion of advocacy and relaxation” in the face of complicated opening hours. This “would further disturb the citizens.”
On the other hand, “the key issue of rapid vaccination” played very little role, Bartsch said. “We need a national vaccination effort to leave the lockdown behind permanently,” he said. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) must make this a top priority so that “more than six million doses of vaccines are not out there by Easter.”
FDP leader Christian Lindner also expressed dissatisfaction with the resolutions. “For the federal government, the blockade remains the only conceivable recipe,” he also told the Funke media group. “A more social and economic life with innovative concepts would be possible.” Lindner criticized the agreed offer of one quick test per week for everyone as “too little.”
The head of the association of general practitioners fears a “bureaucratic excess”
To be able to cope with vaccines, as well as additional tests in addition to patient care, any avoidable effort must be eliminated, says the federal president of the German Association of General Practitioners, Ulrich Weigeldt, the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe” . He warns that the certificates that general practitioners must issue to patients as part of prioritizing vaccination greatly slows down the process and “quickly becomes a bureaucratic hype.” Instead, health insurance companies could support priority verification “through a nationwide invitation procedure.”
The German Association of Cities and Municipalities also criticizes the trial strategy that has been adopted. The resolutions on test strategies with regard to self-tests and self-tests are too vague, ”says Managing Director of the German Association of Cities and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, of the newspaper” Rheinische Post “. However, it is unfortunate that it will obviously be a few more weeks before these instruments are available in sufficient quantities across the board. “The organization depends on the federal states and the municipalities.” How the self-assessments should fit into the system, as well as the evidence documenting how long to allow certain accesses, unfortunately has not yet been answered ”.
