Status: 02/22/2021 10:30 a.m.
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Ten other federal states are opening elementary schools and daycare centers – a step with risk in view of the unclear infection situation. The return to a little more normalcy – can it succeed? What about vaccinations and rapid tests?
Lower Saxony and Saxony have already done it, now ten more federal states are following suit: They are opening primary schools and daycare centers and starting classroom teaching again. Mostly in an alternating model with half classes that come to school alternately. In some places also in full operation with fixed groups that should not meet if possible. More or all of the children are looked after in the daycare centers. The details – as so often in Germany during the Corona crisis – are regulated by each federal state.
Millions of additional contacts every day
In view of the recent increase in the number of infections and incidence values, warnings of a third wave due to the mutated virus variants, sluggish vaccinations and (as yet) non-existent comprehensive rapid tests, the school openings appear to be a risky step. Ultimately, there will be millions of additional contacts every day at one stroke.
“It is good that many schools in Germany are now gradually starting classroom teaching again,” says Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek, especially with a view to the social consequences of the months of school closings. At the same time, she warned: In view of the infection situation, the schools would have to “take all available means to prevent virus transmission” in order to be able to maintain school operations in the coming weeks. But she is certain “that the federal states will take this into account in their opening decisions.”
What about vaccinations?
But it is not only the countries that can provide more corona protection in schools. The federal government can also do a lot: for example, vaccinating teachers and educators earlier than planned. To do this, the vaccination sequence must be changed accordingly. The federal and state health ministers want to discuss this at a switching conference in the afternoon – and presumably also decide on an amended regulation. It will take around a week for it to come into effect.
Jens Spahn, Federal Health Minister CDU, on the possibilities of step-by-step opening plans
Report from Berlin, February 21, 2021
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In the federal states, it would then be possible for teachers and educators to get vaccinated in the vaccination centers at the beginning of March. Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey spoke together Morning magazine from ARD and ZDF for mobile vaccination teams that could come to schools and daycare centers. Health Minister Jens Spahn presented in the Report from Berlin It is also clear that the risk groups such as those over 80 or the chronically ill would have to be vaccinated beforehand.
Baden-Württemberg does not wait any longer
Teachers’ associations criticize the delay. They would have welcomed the vaccination first and then the schools opened. In Baden-Württemberg, where there will be elections in three weeks, you don’t want to lose any time. Social Minister Manfred Lucha (Greens) announced there for his country that from this Monday educators, teachers and doctors “and everyone from the medical field” should be vaccinated. Mainly with the active ingredient from AstraZeneca. Schleswig-Holstein also announced this for the coming weeks. Incidentally, the Standing Vaccination Commission does not expressly recommend the preferred vaccination for school and daycare staff, but remains in the original sequence.
And what about rapid tests?
Regular rapid tests are another way of making school and daycare operations safer. In Potsdam, for example, a corresponding project has been running in daycare centers for a few weeks, and some federal states are already offering rapid tests in schools. But other countries have long been further ahead than Germany. Rapid tests do not offer the same level of security as PCR tests, but in the opinion of experts they are an important building block out of the lockdown. For a long time, however, there was a problem that there were not enough approved tests for comprehensive coverage – that is now changing.
Spahn announced that from March 1, all citizens can be tested for the corona virus by trained staff free of charge. This should be possible in test centers, practices or pharmacies. However, details of the implementation are not yet known. A corresponding adjustment of the corona test regulation has yet to be decided. There should be a long way to go before self-tests are widely available.
The federal student conference is very clear: It is important to invest in a functioning test structure. “We need daily certified self-tests and quick tests for everyone who enters a school building”, said their general secretary Dario Schramm the Funke newspapers.
And here too, as with vaccinations, the following applies: Why does it take so long?
What’s next now?
Observe, wait – and hope: That should be the motto until the next federal-state switch on March 3rd. The country leaders and Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed at their last meeting on February 10th that a strategy for further easing should be worked out by then. Keyword: step-by-step plan. Whether this occurs depends crucially on the development of the infection process. Corona outbreaks like the last one in Flensburg show how unpredictable and extremely fast the situation can change regionally.
Politicians are once again faced with a dilemma: on the one hand, there is a call for easing and a gradual end to the lockdown, on the other hand, the number of infections has recently increased again. And the vaccinations continue to be slow. Unlike in Israel, for example, where there is now easing, but only for people who have been proven to be vaccinated.
Chancellor Merkel pleaded for easing in several stages. Accordingly, she named firstly the area of personal contacts, secondly the area of schools and vocational schools and thirdly the area of sports, restaurants and culture.
Berlin’s mayor Michael Müller announced a proposal for further easing for the new week: If the federal states “remained stable for several weeks” below the incidence of 35 or 50, “further steps in culture and gastronomy can follow”.
Many regions in Germany are currently a long way from this. Accordingly, the criterion of incidence value is increasingly being shaken. A debate that should continue to gather momentum by March 3rd.
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