Politics struggles to relax: Söder warns of openings "flying blind"

Politics is fighting for an easing course
Söder warns of openings "flying blind"

The expectations for the coming Bund-Länder-Round are high, but so are the daily case numbers: Chancellor Merkel and the heads of government of the Länder are faced with a dilemma. Relevant participants are dampening hopes for comprehensive easing.

A few days before the new federal-state consultations, the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder warned against hasty opening steps. "We want to open gradually, but with common sense and caution," said Söder to the editorial network in Germany. In view of the mutated forms of the virus, the federal and state governments should "not fly blind," said the CSU boss: "A general hectic opening up doesn't help anyone." That is why politics should "not lose its nerve now".

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(Photo: dpa)

Söder emphasized that the opening rate had to be based on the so-called incidence values ​​and that "at the end of the day not one date should determine all the next steps". Accordingly, an "intelligent" pattern for openings should be based on the incidence values ​​of 35 and 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. With low incidences, there could be more contacts and schools could offer more face-to-face teaching again.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will consult with the heads of government of the federal states on Wednesday about how to proceed in the pandemic. The pressure from the economy is great, among other things the trade is calling for the reopening of the inner cities not to be made dependent on reaching a seven-day incidence of 35. Several federal states have already announced the opening of garden markets and flower shops in addition to hairdressing shops for the beginning of next week.

Merkel dampens high expectations of self-tests

Hopes for more normality are also directed towards rapid tests, which trained personnel should carry out, and layperson self-tests. However, Merkel said on Thursday evening after consultations at the EU summit that it must first be thoroughly checked "whether we can work out a buffer through more testing with these self-tests, so that the incidence can go slightly higher than 35". In spite of the self-tests, you can neither do without incidences in general nor open them immediately.

Merkel had previously advocated an important role for comprehensive rapid tests in easing plans. The citizens should, as it were, be able to be "freed" in order to take part in a slowly normalizing public life, said the Chancellor of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" on Wednesday. Such a test system should be functional as early as March.

In an impulse paper for the Bund-Länder round, Baden-Württemberg proposed using quick tests to open up parts of the retail trade, restaurants and museums, among other things. Organizers and operators of the facilities "must ensure that only those visitors who can present a negative test are admitted," says Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann's paper from the State Ministry. "In certain areas and on certain occasions we can regain a piece of freedom without this being at the expense of security," it says.

Health Minister Jens Spahn had originally announced that from March 1st there would be an offer for all citizens to be tested free of charge by trained staff with rapid antigen tests – for example in test centers, practices or pharmacies. However, this is only to be discussed at the federal-state deliberations on March 3rd.

. (tagsToTranslate) Politics (t) Angela Merkel (t) Markus Söder (t) Prime Minister (t) Corona easing (t) Lockdown (t) Coronavirus mutation (t) Corona measures (t) Corona crisis (t) Coronaviruses