The demand is great – from December 20, Germany should receive the vaccine that has just been approved.
(Photo: picture alliance / Laci Perenyi)
The corona crisis team announced by the parties to the possible traffic light coalition is taking shape. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) declared her willingness to set up the body together with her designated successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) now. She offered this to Scholz today, said Merkel on Thursday in Berlin.
“This is of course a very sad day on which we have to mourn 100,000 victims of Corona,” she added. Unfortunately, they are still in a phase of exponential growth in the number of infections and know that the number of intensive care patients will continue to rise. “Every day counts here. We need more restrictions on contacts, ”said Merkel.
At the presentation of the coalition agreement on Wednesday, Scholz said that the crisis team should examine the situation on a daily basis. At the beginning of December, the SPD, Greens and FDP then want to advise on possibly stricter corona measures. “We gave ourselves ten days to see: Are we with the booster vaccinations, have we come far enough with the protective measures?” Said Greens boss Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday evening on ARD. So far, it is planned that the federal and state governments will review on December 9th whether the measures of the Infection Protection Act, as amended by the traffic light parties, are effective and sufficient.
Health ministers meet
Criticism of this comes mainly from the Union. Group leader Ralph Brinkhaus said on ARD that the measures initiated would probably not be enough. “We have to act intensively now,” he demanded. The previously planned evaluation on December 9th was “much too late”.
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Preparations for the Prime Minister’s Conference on December 9th also took place on Thursday. Chancellor Merkel could not say whether the meeting could be brought forward. This was demanded by Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and the Saarland state chief Tobias Hans (CDU), among others.
Among other things, the infection protection law changed by the traffic light government is “not appropriate to the current situation” and needs to be changed, said Söder of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. In addition, the pharmacies should also be involved in the vaccination campaign. A corresponding move did not find a majority at the federal-state meeting last week.
As a third point, Söder mentioned the discussion about a general vaccination requirement, which he now supports. “Only they will pacify society and bring us all back the freedom we knew before Corona.” On Thursday, the health ministers of the federal states met at a special post and demanded that the federal government relax the testing requirement for vaccinated and recovered employees in medical practices Clinics. Self-tests performed twice a week should be sufficient. The German Medical Association speaks in a letter to Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) of “bureaucratic control”.
Stiko is preparing recommendation for vaccine for children
The European Medicines Agency, Ema, meanwhile, paved the way for vaccinations of children with the Covid-19 vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer. The responsible Ema committee recommended on Thursday an extension of the admission to children between the ages of five and eleven years.
The final decision still has to be made by the European Commission, but this is a matter of form. So far, the vaccine has only been approved in the European Union from the age of twelve. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn announced on Monday that the entire EU would receive delivery of the children’s vaccine on December 20, and that Germany would receive 2.4 million doses in one fell swoop.
For the decision of the Ema “many concerned parents have been waiting longingly,” said the health policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sabine Dittmar. The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) prepares a recommendation for vaccinating children at the start of the first delivery. “Our goal is to have this recommendation ready by the end of December, if possible by the start of delivery of the children’s vaccine to the federal states,” said Stiko boss Thomas Mertens recently
More: How the EU wants to guarantee freedom of travel in pandemic times.