Vaccination information and indicators: That is what the Bundestag wants to decide today


Vaccination information and indicators
That is what the Bundestag wants to decide today

Not only the incidence should decide on the assessment of the pandemic situation and the associated measures. The Bundestag wants to adopt a new standard today. There should also be changes for employees in some sensitive areas.

For the further fight against the corona pandemic in autumn and winter, the Bundestag is to pass some new regulations on Tuesday shortly before the election. The number of corona patients in the regional clinics should be anchored as the most important yardstick for possible new restrictions – this should replace the previous orientation on the number of infections, which is no longer considered as meaningful in view of the progress in vaccination. In addition, employees in daycare centers, schools and nursing homes should be able to be asked by the employer whether they are vaccinated during the time of the crisis. The new regulations should also create clarity for the near future, in which the formation of a government should be clarified. The Federal Council also has to give its approval in a special session on Friday.

The new corona indicators

In the future, the federal states should largely be able to determine locally when stricter everyday restrictions will be necessary. The “essential benchmark” for measures to be taken should be the number of corona patients admitted to the clinics per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days. However, “other indicators” should also be taken into account. The number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days, available intensive capacities and the number of people vaccinated are mentioned. The countries should then be able to determine where critical threshold values ​​lie.

The background to this is that the number of new infections (incidence), which has been used as a central indicator so far, no longer has such a strong and direct impact on the hospital burden in view of the millions of people who have been vaccinated. So far, the Infection Protection Act has given fixed, uniform values ​​from which seven-day incidence the federal states or local authorities should intervene: from 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days, for example with “comprehensive protective measures”.

The new vaccination information

In the future, employers should be able to request information from employees in daycare centers, schools and nursing homes about a corona vaccination or a recovered Covid disease. Because there particularly vulnerable groups of people would be cared for, and because of the proximity, numerous people would be exposed to a risk of infection. Therefore, for reasons of protection against infection, it may be necessary to use employees “differently or to refrain from employing unvaccinated persons (in certain areas)” depending on their vaccination and antibody status.

The possibility is only to apply during the established “epidemic situation of national scope”, which the Bundestag extended last week for a further three months. The data should be collected directly from the employee. “The voluntary nature of the decision to claim vaccination protection remains unaffected,” the draft clarifies.

Quarantine in schools

Already on Monday evening, the majority of the health ministers of the federal states spoke out in favor of simpler quarantine rules for corona cases in schools. In principle, quarantine should no longer be ordered for the entire class in a case, according to a decision after consultations with the federal government on Monday. Symptom-free children who are in quarantine as close contacts should be able to end this with a negative test after five days at the earliest.

The chairman of the state department heads, Klaus Holetschek from Bavaria, said that this should serve as “guard rails” for the health authorities. The decision was adopted with two countries abstaining.

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