Monday, January 10, 2022
Proof of recovery only digital
Vaccination centers remain open until the end of the year
The vaccination centers will remain open until the end of 2022, Federal Health Minister Lauterbach promises his colleagues from the federal states. In addition, proof of recovery should only be possible digitally in the future. That should be implemented quickly. In the case of mandatory vaccination, on the other hand, there is a request.
The duration of the vaccination centers in Germany is to be extended until the end of 2022. This is what Saxony-Anhalt’s Minister of Health, Petra Grimm-Benne, and Saarland’s Minister of Health, Monika Bachmann, announced. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has promised “that the funding will be secured by the end of the year,” said Grimm-Benne after a video conference of the federal and state health ministers.
Bachmann, who brought in the application from Saarland, praised the understanding. “With this decision, the state, the districts and municipalities, but especially the employees who are doing great things in the vaccination centers, can reliably plan for the year 2022,” she said. “It would have been fatal to repeat the measures from the past and to suspend the funding prematurely.”
In addition, the state ministers have decided that in future people who have recovered from the coronavirus should only use a QR code to prove their status digitally. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has promised to implement this promptly, said Grimm-Benne. The SPD politician is currently the chairwoman of the conference of health ministers. The Federal Ministry is to create a corresponding legal basis “with which the obligation to exclusively present a digitally readable proof of recovery” becomes possible for access controls, for example for events or in restaurants. This would be possible by storing the evidence in the Corona warning app.
Please introduce mandatory vaccination
The heads of department plead for a quick solution to the general compulsory vaccination being discussed. “At the health ministers’ conference, we were of the opinion that the general vaccination should come,” said Grimm-Benne. A corresponding bill should ideally come from the middle of the Bundestag, she said. “We ask that it go as quickly as possible, we are losing the necessary time here.”
There are still different positions on the question of whether a vaccination register should be introduced or not, according to the SPD politician. At their first regular conference this year, the health ministers also discussed a possible fourth corona vaccination. So far, the booster vaccination campaign with booster vaccinations has been running in Germany. Israel, on the other hand, is vaccinating for the fourth time. Grimm-Benne left it open to what extent one would like to follow this example. More scientific research is needed first, she said.