The right to a PCR test should remain

If necessary, because of the prioritization, people should expect that it will take a little longer until they receive their PCR test results, according to Grimm-Benne. The prioritization is the task of the laboratories. For Saxony-Anhalt, for example, the test capacity could be doubled from around 10,000 PCR tests a week to 20,000, said the SPD politician.

The health ministers were unable to agree on Monday about a return to recovery status in six months. The department heads rejected a request from Bavaria to extend the convalescent status from the current three to six months. According to Grimm-Benne, Lauterbach had confirmed in the switch that the shortening of the recovered status was based on scientific results. The health ministers did not advise on easing the corona measures on Monday, said Grimm-Benne. Opening prospects are firm intentions, but these can only be opened up after the peak of the omicron wave in mid-February.

Vaccination rate is only 75.8 percent

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has meanwhile clearly missed the goal of vaccinating 80 percent of the population against Corona at least once by the end of January. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit conceded this on Monday in Berlin. The rate published by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) was 75.8 percent as of January 30.

The government will not achieve a second vaccination target either, as Scholz himself admitted a week ago. 30 million vaccinations were planned between Christmas and the end of the month. According to the RKI figures, only a good 17.3 million first, second and third vaccinations have been administered since December 26th.

The people who were vaccinated on Monday are not included in the latest figures – but they will not significantly improve the rate. Since the beginning of the year, the total daily values ​​for vaccinations have never exceeded one million administered doses.

The high for the current year was reached on January 12 with around 871,000 vaccinations. Since then the number has been declining. Just under 28,900 people received an initial vaccination on Saturday and Sunday.

The federal government had already had to postpone its target of 80 percent first-time vaccinations. Originally, she wanted to reach this quota by January 7th.

Government spokesman Hebestreit attributes the missed goals to a lack of vaccination willingness. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, more than a million people were vaccinated each day. “This dynamic slowed down over the Christmas holidays and did not increase again at the beginning of the year to the extent that we had hoped,” said Hebestreit.

Numbers could actually be higher

However, the RKI has long pointed out that the figures shown are to be understood as minimum vaccination rates. A hundred percent coverage by the reporting system cannot be achieved.

The RKI assumes that the actual vaccination rate is up to five percentage points higher than stated. According to the statistics, 24.2 percent are not vaccinated, a total of 20.2 million people. However, they also include four million children aged up to four years for whom no approved vaccine is yet available.

Last week Chancellor Scholz announced a multilingual campaign with the slogan “vaccination helps” that is intended to increase vaccination readiness. In addition, parts of the traffic light factions of the SPD, Greens and FDP are planning general vaccination for all adults.

Chancellor Scholz is also promoting it. However, the factions are divided on the issue. There is also a proposal for compulsory vaccination from the age of 50 and for waiving compulsory vaccination altogether.

A high vaccination rate is considered the most important measure in the fight against the pandemic. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) warns of further waves of infection at the end of the year, in which the highest possible vaccination rate is necessary in order to be able to do without corona measures.

According to a survey, more than half of Germans are also concerned that there will always be new corona waves until everyone is vaccinated against the virus. In a special survey on the “fears of Germans in the Corona crisis 2022”, this fear exceeds all other concerns, as the study by R+V-Versicherung published on Monday shows. 49 percent of those questioned fear that the politicians are overwhelmed. 43 percent are afraid of a corona infection.

Meanwhile, the calls for opening plans among the prime ministers are getting louder. Leading FDP and CSU politicians, among others, made corresponding statements. They justified this with the previously less severe course of the disease in the omicron wave.

CSU boss Markus Söder said on Sunday evening in ARD’s “Report from Berlin”: “In this omicron wall that is coming towards us, we must also look for a door through which you can go into a new era.”

Call for relaxation

On Monday, Bremen’s Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte was also open to a debate about easing. If the situation is stable, including in the intensive care units, politics cannot ignore a perspective debate, said the SPD politician on Deutschlandfunk. Discussion points could be the 2G regulation in retail and the utilization of football stadiums.

For the retail trade, Bremen’s mayor considers a nationwide mandatory mask requirement instead of the 2G regulation to be conceivable. 2G states that only vaccinated or recovered people are allowed to enter corresponding indoor areas. “And we have to come to a regulation that is as uniform as possible when it comes to major events,” said Bovenschulte, referring to the sport.

Bovenschulte said that one can and must think about openings, especially if the situation in the intensive care units remains stable and the normal beds show that “there are also people with Corona and not just because of Corona”.

According to Bovenschulte, around a third of the corona infected people in Bremen’s hospitals are currently in normal wards because of the infection in the hospital. In the other cases, the reason for admission was not Corona. The situation in the intensive care units is relaxing.

>> Read here: 2G, 3G or mask requirement? Economy is annoyed by the mess with corona rules

At the moment, however, the federal government sees no reason to relax the corona measures. “The moment we have the feeling that we can relax responsibly, this federal government, all state governments will take exactly this step,” said government spokesman Hebestreit.

At the moment, however, it is “still a bit premature” to take this step. In the current phase, the numbers are still going up, with new records every day. The peak is expected for mid or late February.

Green health politician Janosch Dahmen agreed with the federal government’s assessment and warned against easing the corona pandemic too quickly. “There is no reason for opening measures to be taken in the short term,” said the member of the Bundestag of the German Press Agency in Berlin.

The hospitalization rate is now increasing again, there is no reason to give the all-clear. If the situation worsens, it would be better to think about expanding existing protective measures such as 2G Plus rules.

With agency material.

More: Distance, compulsory testing, mask: when the corona measures could end