German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is urging citizens today to abide by health rules and voluntarily limit their contacts in order to avoid a new lockdown. “Let us do it so that kindergartens and schools do not close again, so that we do not have to stop all movement in public again,” Steinmeier wrote in an article in Sunday’s issue of the Bild newspaper. Immediate imposition of a few weeks lockdown on the entire population is suggested by more and more scientific actors such as the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences, which advises politicians on scientific issues. Incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as politicians from the two Christian parties CDU and CSU, had called for a national lockdown.
A precondition for this measure is for the German parliament to re-enact the “national epidemiological situation” regulation. The Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals, the parties that intend to form the new government in the next two weeks, are rejecting this step, at least for now. As they argue, the states which are responsible for health policy have at their disposal all the means to impose the necessary restrictions on their territory.
Discussion on compulsory vaccination
According to a poll by the INSA institute, 57% of Germans want a lockdown across Germany, 73% believe the measure will be taken within a year and 55% say the policy takes too much into account the interests of unvaccinated. To date, only 68.4% of the population (56.9 million) has been fully vaccinated. The imposition of compulsory vaccination, as in Austria, for example, is opposed by the majority of the political world, although the prevailing view among legal experts is that the measure is compatible with the Constitution. However, the current and apparently next Labor Minister, Social Democrat Hubertus Hale, announced that by the end of the year a law will be passed that will introduce compulsory vaccination for employees in hospitals, nursing homes and hospitals.
In Germany, 68.4% of the population (56.9 million) have been fully vaccinated to date. Fully vaccinated are in the age group of 60 years and over, 86%, in the age group 18-59 years 75.3% and in the age group 12-17 years 45.9%. A vaccine is not yet available for younger ages.
Deutsche Welle: Panagiotis Kouparanis, Berlin
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