Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Union insists on more instruments
Merkel is alarmed about the progress of the pandemic
From Franca Lehfeldt
The number of new corona infections is increasing, and politicians continue to argue about how to deal with the fourth wave of pandemics. While the Chancellor warns of an overload of the clinics, the Union wants to expand the traffic light parties’ draft for a new infection protection law according to ntv information.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed concern about the development of the corona infection numbers. The situation is worse than ever since the beginning of the pandemic in Germany, said the executive head of government according to information from ntv in a switch with the Prime Minister of the Union. Merkel was alarmed, it is said from participants. The Chancellor pointed out that the intensive care beds in December would not be scarce, but “overutilized”.
Concerned notes also come from Saxony. The Free State does not want to forego the possibility of a lockdown in the future, according to the state government. You are for 2G as long as you can, but what happens if that’s not enough? As part of a hotspot strategy, for example, it must be possible for a seven-day incidence of 1000 to be imposed on the affected district. This could then also affect vaccinated people.
The Union-led countries insist on being able to continue using the “full toolbox of instruments” from the previous Infection Protection Act. This also provides for an amendment by the Union parliamentary group, which ntv has before. Accordingly, the previously possible measures should remain available until December 15, 2021.
A bill by the traffic light parties, which is to be passed in the Bundestag this Thursday, no longer provides for a lockdown even after tightening by the SPD, Greens and FDP. The traffic light parties also want to delete the general closure of schools from the catalog of measures of the Infection Protection Act. The federal states can only impose corona measures that are listed in this catalog.
The green-black ruled Baden-Württemberg also insists that exit restrictions remain possible after the epidemic has expired. Even if the state parliament determined the specific risk of an epidemic corona spread, there would be no legal basis for exit restrictions, according to the German press agency from the Stuttgart state government.
The main demand of Baden-Württemberg for the Prime Minister’s Conference on Thursday is to get rid of the restrictions of the so-called state opening clause, said Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann. The end of the epidemic situation will undoubtedly come too early, criticized the Greens.