Angela Merkel put tighter restrictions on unvaccinated persons at a last meeting with the Länder in order to boost Germany's still-inadequate vaccination coverage.
Angela Merkel put tighter restrictions on unvaccinated persons at a last meeting with the Länder in order to boost Germany's still-inadequate vaccination coverage. The pro-vaccine argument is weakened by the differences between the CDU and the potential coalition.
As the former first of the European class has been amassing infection records for more than ten days, the holy union that was Germany's strength at the outset of the epidemic appears to be a long way off. On Thursday, the country saw 65,371 new cases and 264 more fatalities. It reveals a total of 337 infections per 100,000 people over the course of seven days.
The ferocity of this fourth wave is igniting a trench battle between Angela Merkel's party and the forming "traffic light" alliance, with each party shifting blame for the crisis at the risk of diluting the fundamental message.
However, everyone agrees on one thing: there is insufficient vaccine coverage throughout the Rhine, which stands at 67.8%. On Thursday, in the presence of her very probable successor, Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor convened a meeting of the sixteen leaders of Länder to increase coverage and speed up the injection of more than 25 million booster doses. On Thursday, the German vaccination authority (Stiko) approved the recall for all adults.
The reopening of vaccinodromes is approaching, and the vaccination will be required of hospital and retirement home workers. To increase the pressure on unvaccinated people, their exclusion from restaurants, sports halls, and other places will be enforced if the hospital occupancy rate, which is currently 5.3 per 100,000 inhabitants over seven days at the federal level, exceeds the threshold of three, as it is in 12 regions. Vaccinated people will be required to show a test once they reach the age of six. New measures may be introduced if the number reaches 9, which has already been reached in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
However, disagreements between the CDU and the SPD-led coalition, which includes the Greens and the FDP, raise concerns about the country's capacity to recover control of the health crisis. During an enthralling debate in the Bundestag on Monday morning, Marco Buschmann, the first secretary of the FDP parliamentary party, emphasized that diseases were surging the highest in Saxony, a CDU-ruled area, due to a vaccination rate of only 59.7%.
Angela Merkel's party failed to persuade the Bundestag to prolong the state of emergency beyond November 25, allowing the government to circumvent Parliament and respond more quickly. When this framework was still in place, the elected FDP Michaal Theurer was criticized during the Christian Democrats' speech with the question, "Why not have acted earlier?"
Generalized test need for the unvaccinated, even exclusion, and option of testing immunized persons if infection levels are very high: "The Länder will have more resources at their disposal than they have now," Sabine Dittmar, the SPD's Bundestag spokesman for health matters, claimed.
Angela Merkel is concerned that containment measures, such as store closures or travel bans, would be omitted from the bill, which was passed by the Bundestag on Thursday with a majority of 57.8% of the vote. On Friday, the CDU has threatened to veto the bill in the Bundesrat. After November 25, the Länder would be left without a legally sound toolbox in the face of the coronavirus if such a judgment is made.