Saturday, November 13th, 2021
12,000 soldiers by Christmas
Bundeswehr is preparing for Corona winter
Thousands of Bundeswehr soldiers are already on the Corona mission in winter 2020 and spring 2021. In the winter of 2021, they will apparently be needed again to support hospitals and health authorities. The plans for this are already in the Ministry of Defense.
The RKI is currently recording new highs of corona cases almost daily. In order to support health authorities and hospitals, the Bundeswehr is now to be deployed more intensively again. The responsible Lieutenant General Martin Schelleis wants to mobilize up to 12,000 soldiers as quickly as possible, reports the “Spiegel”. The uniformed helpers should also help with the booster vaccinations and the expansion of rapid tests in front of nursing homes and hospitals.
Schelleis sent a corresponding template to the Ministry of Defense on Friday. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Schelleis has been in charge of the Bundeswehr’s Corona relief operation as inspector of the armed forces base. Also on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense announced that there was a growing demand for administrative assistance. The Bundeswehr is currently supporting the pandemic measures with 650 soldiers.
According to the bill, there should be 6,000 by the end of November, which will then be increased to a good 12,000 by Christmas. According to the news magazine, the ministry said that the Bundeswehr was ready to provide all necessary aid. In order to coordinate the aid, the executive defense minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer will also take part in Chancellor Merkel’s crisis round with the federal states next Thursday.
No compulsory vaccination for the troops
In a daily order, Schelleis had already prepared the troops for a “difficult winter” last week and asked each individual to finally get vaccinated or to strengthen their personal protection with a booster vaccination. A good 75 percent of all members of the Bundeswehr are vaccinated, but doctors would like a higher vaccination rate. There are currently almost 800 corona infected people in the troop.
So far, the Bundeswehr has only made vaccination compulsory for the various missions abroad; domestically, the military leadership has not been able to prevail against the resistance of the staff representatives. The Bundeswehr had also helped out in earlier critical pandemic phases because the health authorities had been overwhelmed by a wave of new infections. More than 10,000 soldiers were deployed in winter 2020 and spring 2021.