Loosen or tighten lockdown? Wait. The federal and state governments will probably not decide on the “Corona winter timetable” until November 23. Prime Minister Dreyer concluded in Report from Berlin stricter contact restrictions.
By Wenke Börnsen, tagesschau.de
The federal and state governments want to draw an interim conclusion at the halfway point of the lockdown – that inevitably raises expectations. That there may be a date on which restaurants, museums, cinemas, gyms can reopen. That maybe in December a bit of normality will return.
Hardly any of this should be decided on this Monday. Instead, the federal and state governments apparently rely on waiting. And the principle of hope. If anything, it should be discussed which measures could come, keyword: stricter contact restrictions. A decision on the “Corona winter timetable” will only be made when there are renewed consultations on November 23. According to information from the German Press Agency, several countries pleaded at the preliminary meeting on Sunday in the Chancellery for the first time to continue monitoring developments and to wait with far-reaching decisions.
“The numbers have to go down”
For “real consequences” it is now – after two weeks – too early, said the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer in Report from Berlin. Although the dynamics of new infections are decreasing, the numbers are still too high. “One thing is clear: the numbers have to go down.”
What if they don’t sink? In this case, the SPD politician advocated further limiting the number of contacts. “Even fewer contacts – that’s the point,” she appealed to everyone in the country. Dreyer did not rule out that the contact restrictions could be tightened further. At the moment, only members of two households are allowed to meet in public, and a maximum of ten people in total. It is now conceivable that further restrictions will be agreed here – for example, that only one household and one other person may come together.
School issue
Dreyer also recalled why the focus is on limiting leisure time contacts: “We do this so that our educational institutions can remain open.”
The corona situation in schools and how it was dealt with recently triggered discussions. There could also be a dispute on this issue at the federal-state consultations. In principle, there was agreement that schools should remain open for face-to-face teaching, according to preliminary consultations. However, a majority of the countries currently do not want to change the regulations. The Chancellery, on the other hand, wants to talk about changes, for example in the distance rules applicable in schools, the group size or the introduction of change models in the classroom. Here the fronts have hardened.
Prime Minister Dreyer concluded in Report from Berlin It does not rule out that one could agree on Monday on the suggestion of Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder that there should be a general mask requirement in schools. Many countries introduced this long ago.
It is not unlikely that the federal-state round will agree on measures in the area of communication this Monday, it said. A kind of “etiquette” is conceivable in which rules of conduct for children and families, for example, could be included. The “Bild” newspaper reported on this. In addition, the protection of risk groups will again play a role – but this time for those old and sick people who do not live within a home.
In summary: Some small things could be decided on Monday, larger levers will probably only be moved a week later.
New infections at a high level
A clear assessment of the infection process is also difficult at the moment. The number of new infections remains at a high level, even if the increase no longer seems so steep.
The 7-day incidence, i.e. the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in one week, has also increased more slowly recently. On Sunday, according to the RKI, it was 143. However, this is far from the target set by politicians of a maximum of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. It is conceivable that the last rise that appears to have been slowed down is a random statistical fluctuation or is due to reporting delays. In its daily status report, the RKI emphasizes that a large number of transmissions in the population in Germany can currently be observed.
No relaxation in intensive care units
In the intensive care units, too, there is currently no sign of any relaxation of the situation. According to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), the number of patients treated in intensive care rose by just under 1700 – from 362 to 2061 – between October 1 and November 1. In the past two weeks, more than 1300 cases added, on Sunday the number was 3385 – an increase of 60 compared to the previous day.
This development was to be expected. Because it takes an average of ten to twelve days for a newly infected person who develops a severe course of Covid 19 to end up in an intensive care unit – and the patients often stay long in the clinics. A possible decrease in the number of patients in intensive care units is lagging behind a possible decrease in new infections. Most recently, the DIVI and other clinicians called for postponable interventions in the hospitals in particularly badly affected regions to be reduced or discontinued in order to prevent the clinics from becoming overloaded.
After all, unlike in spring and summer, there are no “opening discussion orgies”. The federal and state governments are relatively in agreement that there cannot be any easing at this point in time. Or as Bavaria’s Prime Minister Söder put it: “If you relax too early, you risk Christmas.”
