BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday announced a series of measures to strengthen the vaccine booster campaign in Germany, in hopes of curbing the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19.
Only people who have received a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be able to access bars and restaurants without presenting a negative screening test, said Olaf Scholz after a meeting with the leaders of the Länder.
These same people, if they have been in contact with someone infected with the virus, will no longer be subjected to a period of isolation, he added at a press conference.
This lightening of the isolation rules – like what has already been decided in France – should in particular make it possible to avoid disrupting the essential sectors of activity.
Infected people and their contact cases will be able to leave quarantine after ten days instead of 14, a period reduced to seven days in the event of a negative test.
The German Chancellor at the same time promised the distribution of 30 million additional doses of vaccine by the end of January.
“Vaccination is important. We need to make more progress on this,” he said. “It’s clear that Omicron is going to be staying with us for a while, so we can’t let our guard down, for our healthcare system.”
According to the latest official data released by the Robert Koch Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is now responsible for 44% of new infections in Germany, where 41.6% of the population has benefited from a vaccination booster.
The president of the German federation of the hotel and catering sector, Guido Zöllick, called on the government to provide financial support to companies in the sector, already weakened by the measures in force.
(Report Miranda Murray, French version Myriam Rivet and Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Bertrand Boucey and Sophie Louet)
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