The pandemic of Coronavirus continues to mark the German political agenda and the boot of the new coalition government. For the second time in less than two weeks, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been forced to celebrate a telematic summit with the presidents of the federated States before the advance of the variant omicron, less deadly but more infectious. The result has been a new catalog of restrictions halfway between respecting individual freedoms promised in the elections and measures that experts consider necessary. The tripartite formed by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals of the FDP is in a test and its Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, Professor of Health Economics and Epidemiology by the Colonia and Harvard universities, alone. Social Democrat, as Scholz, is the only member of the Cabinet who advocated to give a twist on restrictions already in force. Many of the suggestions that he did to his regional colleagues prior to the quote from Chancellor with the Länder stayed in the inkwell.
But Lauterbach, whom I also consulted Angela Merkel, has managed to mark the path that would justify harder measures without breaking the cohesion of government partners, so much that the pandemic has become a threat to the country's critical safety and infrastructures. Acting the transmission of the virus and in that case of the variant omicron, more infectious, is a matter of force majeure.
There are no trains data that has stopped working for losses of personnel, the aircraft that have not been able to take off, the police officers, military, customs, doctors, engineers or supervisors of quarantine energy networks. But the document agreed by the Federal Government and the Länder emphasizes that "there are strategic sectors in danger by a massive lack of infected personnel."
That is why one of the critical points addressed by Scholz and its regional peers was the duration of quarantine in general and the possibility of shortening it for the critical infrastructure staff in particular. The agreement has been salomonic. The strict 14-day quarantine mandatory happens to be ten days, but workers in critical infrastructures can reduce it to 7 by providing a PCR test.
Hospitals, elderly residences and emergency aid centers are considered critical infrastructures for the vulnerability of people who come to them.
No administration wants to speak openly of confinement, to close schools and day care, to impose the teleworking, measures that damage the economy or feed the manifestations of protests in the streets and these, although scattered, are increasingly violent. Threats over the Internet to politicians, health personnel, experts, journalists or personalities that, for example, campaign for vaccination, have increased.
The second Scholz Summit with the "Länder" concludes, then, with the revision of existing measures and in application in numerous Länder or expansion of them at the federal level. That is the case of the requirements to access restaurants and cafes. Since the belief that the transmission in these premises the omicron variant is easier while the constant use of the mask is not possible, the 2GPLUS rule - by Geimpft or Genesen (vaccinated or healed) is more imposed at the federal level Negative or reinforcement dose certification. In museums, theaters, cinemas or any cultural event, the 2G standard is maintained with the possibility that some centers are, in addition, a test.
Regarding private contacts, Minister Lauterbach had spoken in favor of stricter measures for meetings, but according to the agreement, meetings between vaccinated and healed up to ten people will remain possible. For others, limitation is two people from another family unit.
Meanwhile, the incidence has risen to 303.4 new contagues per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days, compared to 214.9 a week ago, although it is still below the 452.4 peak registered in November. The accumulated rate of hospital admissions is 3.26 per 100,000 inhabitants and the UCI occupation of patients with COVID-19 is 16%. The percentage of vaccinated with the complete pattern in Germany is 71.6%. 41.6% of them have already received a dose of memory.
Date Of Update: 07 January 2022, 12:53
