“At the moment, any relaxation of the measures is not justified” for pandemicrepeated o German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbachresponding to state governments but also to his governing partner, the Liberals (FDP), who are calling for the restrictions to be lifted and warned of the danger of an “early opening”.
The peak of its wave “Omicron” variant is expected in the coming weeks, he stressed and confirmed that “we will be able to lift many restrictions well before Easter”.
“We can not support broad relaxation at this time. If we go to an early opening, we will significantly extend the wave. “The situation is not really under control yet,” Lauterbach said during a joint news conference with Lothar Wheeler, head of the Robert Koch Institute, and Rolf Apweiler, director of the European Bioinformatics Institute. “The debate on relaxation is awkward (…) It can not be our goal to jeopardize a functioning, successful strategy,” he said, looking at the demands for relaxation ahead of the federation-state conference scheduled for February 16. The Minister of Health and Professor of Epidemiology also warned of the possibility of new variants of the main strain of the coronavirus. “We can only hope that the new variants will be safer,” he said, noting that compared to other European countries the population in Germany is older with many older people still unvaccinated.
Answering questions about his view of Robert Koch Institute and especially his collaboration with its head, Lothar Wheeler, after the tension erupted when the Institute took the government by surprise by limiting the validity of healing certificates to three to six months, Karl Lauterbach assured that he his absolute confidence. “Mr Wheeler has my full confidence, he’s sitting here, after all. “It is important that we work together well,” said the health minister, who chose not to comment on the criticism leveled at him by the head of the Robert Koch Institute, FDP officials. Lothar Wheeler himself responded to the criticism jokingly: “Today is my birthday. “What better way than to spend my 61st birthday with you today, since we are so close now,” he said with a laugh, admitting that in recent years his work has been in the spotlight more than ever. “Everything is fine,” he finally said of his co-operation with the new government.
Regarding the course of the pandemic, Mr. Wheeler noted that the current phase is a “turning point”, as we now know better the virus, a large part of the population has a basic immunity and we now know very well what measures they take .
The Minister of Health also directly criticized the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Markus Zender, who refuses to implement in his state the decision for compulsory vaccination of the workers in the health sector until March 15. “I find it very problematic that the laws are not enforced by the state prime ministers,” Lauterbach said, adding that the vaccination requirement was not an attack on workers but a protection for vulnerable people. A situation is now being created where the protest is considered more important than the protection of these people, the Minister of Health concluded. Today, however, Mr. Zenter’s objections were adopted by the Christian Union (CDU / CSU), calling for a moratorium on the measure at the national level, citing “impossible regulation.” On March 16, those who have not complied will be fired, according to the new legislation.
Mr Aweiler, for his part, highlighted the need to achieve a high rate of vaccination against Covid-19 worldwide. “The more people who are not vaccinated, the more cases there are and the faster new variants will appear. “We have to wait for variations with the transmission of Omicron and the seriousness of Delta,” he pointed out.
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