Saturday, November 13th, 2021
“Infection is exploding”
Union wants to influence corona plans of the traffic lights
The epidemic situation and with it the nationwide regulation for measures in areas such as leisure, travel and events will end on November 24th. The Union is trying by all means to maintain the status, while the traffic light parties are aiming for milder protective measures.
The Union parliamentary group has submitted its own proposals to the SPD for the planned revision of the Infection Protection Act. According to information from the German Press Agency from Union circles, CDU / CSU demand, among other things, that employers are given the right to ask questions in order to be able to determine the vaccination status of their employees. The traffic light factions of the SPD, Greens and FDP want to change the law.
According to the Union, there are also gaps in criminal liability in the Red-Green-Yellow plans if someone tries to forge a vaccination certificate. Here, too, must be sharpened. The Union parliamentary group also called for the countries to be given the opportunity to take flexible measures, it said in Union circles. There is concern that otherwise it will have to be readjusted soon if the corona situation worsens in the coming weeks.
The Bundestag wants to finally discuss the plans of the traffic light groups on the Infection Protection Act this Thursday, the Bundesrat is to decide on the planned changes in a special session on Friday.
With an application also submitted to the dpa, the Union parliamentary group wants the Bundestag to extend the epidemic situation of national scope beyond November 25th. First the “Rheinische Post” reported on the application. Overall, the conditions for an extension are met, it says in the paper. Without a new Bundestag confirmation, the special legal situation will automatically expire on November 25th.
“Totally wrong signal”
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt said: “Hospital occupancy rates are increasing sharply, the number of infections is exploding, the third vaccination has yet to pick up speed and in this situation the traffic lights want to let the epidemic emergency run out. That is a completely wrong signal.” The epidemic situation must be extended “so that the necessary toolkit to combat the pandemic is available”.
In the “Passauer Neue Presse”, Dobrindt called on SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz to return to the “Team Caution”. “In August, Olaf Scholz spoke out in favor of an extension.” Today he wants to end it. “With this, the Ampel-Coalition is putting our healthcare system to the test.”