Pressure on unvaccinated people increases – “Fourth wave there with full force”

“If the pandemic situation in hospitals worsens, further restrictions are only possible for those who have not been vaccinated,” he says. The Chancellor sees developments with great concern.

In fact, in some federal states people without vaccination and convalescence status have to be prepared for restrictions. In Baden-Württemberg, stricter rules have been in effect since Wednesday due to the increasing occupancy of the clinics with Covid patients.

Unvaccinated people now have to show a PCR test if they want to go to restaurants, cinemas, swimming pools, museums or other facilities. A quick test is usually sufficient outdoors.

In addition, the recently introduced 2G option model is no longer available. This means that both customers and employees must wear a mask again, even if a company only allows people who have been vaccinated or recovered (2G) to enter. The general mask requirement, with exceptions for example when eating and drinking in the restaurant, remains in place.

As a further drastic measure, contact restrictions for unvaccinated people are returning. For example, meetings are now limited to one household and five other people. Vaccinated and convalescent people as well as people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons are excluded. Children and young people up to the age of 17 are also not included.

Too many people who want to be vaccinated cannot find a doctor to vaccinate them. The Managing Minister of Health Jens Spahn

Saxony and Thuringia also want to tighten the protective measures with the help of the 2G rule in view of the drastically increasing number of corona infections. In Berlin, a 2G-plus model could soon apply, in which those who have recovered and who have been vaccinated also have to show a negative test. And in particularly affected regions in Bavaria, unvaccinated people will soon only be able to go to work with a negative test (3G).

However, there is currently no transnational plan – such considerations are met with criticism anyway. “A nationwide 2G regulation for the whole of Germany is not necessary at the moment and would not do justice to the different infection processes in the federal states,” said Gerd Landsberg, head of the Association of Cities and Towns, the Handelsblatt.

“That is why it is right, especially in countries with a particularly high incidence and low vaccination rate, to use the 2G regulations and to intensify the vaccination campaign in order to curb the incidence of infections.”

And the head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, told Handelsblatt that from a medical point of view, the 2G option is understandable. “Overall, however, it will be difficult to implement, for example in relation to children who cannot currently be vaccinated.

In addition, a mandatory introduction would above all raise constitutional and sociopolitical questions that cannot be answered by medical professionals, ”he said. “Such a measure has an impact on society that must not be ignored.”

Conference of Health Ministers

The federal and state health ministers could already clarify the pandemic policy on Thursday and Friday. In focus: vaccination, testing, tightened measures. What sounds like old recipes against the pandemic was neglected in many places in the end of the summer – and handled very differently.

Spahn criticized the negligent controls of the 2G and 3G rules in facilities and the slow progress with booster vaccinations. So far, two million people have received a third dose, that is not enough.

The federal states should inform those affected, as is already happening in Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia. The medical profession also has to go along with it. “Too many people who want to be vaccinated cannot find a doctor to vaccinate them,” criticized Spahn.

In a draft resolution for the conference of health ministers, Spahn had already announced that the booster vaccinations “should in principle be offered to all people who wish them six months after the first series of vaccinations had been completed.”

The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), Thomas Mertens, however, emphasized that it is now a matter of first protecting those people who need it most urgently with a “booster”.

Healthy middle-aged people with primary immunization could assume that they still have adequate protection against severe Covid 19 disease. Stiko currently recommends booster vaccinations for people aged 70 and over and people with a weakened immune system.

Stricter test rules should also apply in care facilities. Employees should submit a negative test twice a week, regardless of their vaccination status.

So far, the question is whether there will be a federal-state conference in addition to the meeting of health ministers in the coming week. The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) had called for a coordinated strategy from the federal and state governments.

As chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference, he thinks it is imperative that the heads of government of the federal states come to “a common assessment” of the situation and coordinate their actions with each other and with the federal government, said Wüst on Wednesday in his first government statement in the state parliament in Düsseldorf. The basis for this are the deliberations of the health ministers on Thursday and Friday.

Several prime ministers reject Wüst’s proposal for a new conference of the states with the federal government on the corona situation. These include, for example, Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU), Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) and Berlin’s Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD).

On the other hand, the Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) and Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CDU) received encouragement.

With agency material.

More: Politicians are fighting for stronger corona vaccination protection – and are calling for a “booster summit”.