Status: 25.05.2021 7:00 p.m.
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Family visits to Turkey and the Balkans would have triggered every second new infection in phases in 2020, said Health Minister Spahn. For this he is now receiving sharp criticism from the Turkish and Albanian sides.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn has drawn criticism by stating that family visits to Turkey and the Balkans led to an increase in the corona numbers last summer. Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Turkish community in Germany were outraged. “It is a scandal that a German minister publicly denounces the Balkans and thus also devalues people with a migration background,” said Prime Minister Rama of “Bild”.
A German health minister should take care of vaccinating the German population and not arouse stereotypical resentment against the Balkans in order to defend “an obviously bad record,” said Rama. “I will not allow Albania to be portrayed as an area of risk for vacation travel, there are no figures to prove it.”
Turkish community laments “stigmatization”
The deputy chairman of the Turkish community, Serhat Ulusoy, said that Spahn was “suspecting entire sections of the population” and “opening the door to stigmatization”. He wants to “campaign at all costs and on the backs of people”. “The second wave is homemade and good corona management looks different.”
Spahn had told “Bild am Sonntag” that “trips abroad, often visits to relatives in Turkey and the Balkans, triggered around 50 percent of new infections at times”. That must be prevented this year. He therefore wanted to conclude agreements with Turkey about tests on entry and exit at an early stage, said Spahn. “As in the previous year, mandatory testing would have to be checked by the federal states at the border.”
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