LIVE | Few Russians get vaccinated: Putin calls for | Inland

15.12 – Putin calls on Russians to take vaccine after low turnout

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called on the population to be vaccinated against the corona virus, after it emerged that few residents are vaccinated. Many Russians are skeptical about the vaccination.

According to Putin, it is very important that people get vaccinated. “If someone wants to feel confident, doesn’t want to get sick and doesn’t want to suffer serious consequences from that disease, then of course it is better to get this vaccine,” he said on state channel Rossiya-1.

The 68-year-old president himself received a vaccine on Tuesday. It has not been disclosed which vaccine he was vaccinated with, but it is at least a Russian-made drug. Putin also decided to get the shot behind closed doors, unlike many other world leaders.

A spokesman said that Putin felt well after the vaccination. He did let it be known that he had had some side effects. “I woke up the next morning with mild muscle pain, but I had no elevation,” Putin said. He also said he had an uncomfortable feeling in the place where he received the injection. The Kremlin deliberately does not disclose the name of the vaccine, “because all three Russian vaccines are reliable and effective.”

Russia started a vaccination campaign in December, but so far about 4 million of its 144 million residents have received two injections. Another 2 million Russians would have had their first shot.

A recent poll shows that less than a third of the Russian population is willing to get vaccinated against the corona virus. Nearly two-thirds of the population would believe the virus was created by humans as a “biological weapon.”

Russia is one of the countries most affected by the corona virus. To date, more than 4.5 million inhabitants have been infected. More than 200,000 Russians are said to have died from the effects of Covid-19, although the country itself reports lower figures.

13.10 – One test every 72 hours

Truck drivers traveling to England from abroad may face mandatory corona testing from April 6. They must initially undergo testing within 48 hours. After that, a corona test must follow every 72 hours, says Transport Minister Grant Shapps.

The United Kingdom wants to better monitor the spread of new corona variants with these new rules. Those mutated versions of the virus are seen as more contagious. The UK government had already banned non-essential international travel, but lorry drivers are not covered by that travel ban.

The new test requirement only applies to truck drivers who stay in England for more than two days. An exception is made for drivers from the so-called Common Travel Area, which includes neighboring Ireland and the Channel Islands.

Similar rules caused chaos in the southwest of England at the end of last year. At the time, it was a test obligation that France had introduced for truck drivers from the United Kingdom. An insider said on Friday that sufficient rapid tests are expected to be available this time. As a result, there should be no major inconvenience now.

10.56 – Mortality probability of German hospitals decreased

The mortality rate of corona patients in German teaching hospitals decreased in the course of last year. This may be because treatments have improved and medical teams gained more experience, say researchers at the University of Erlangen.

Researchers looked at, among other things, the data of about 1,300 corona patients in 14 hospitals. A fifth (20.7 percent) of the corona patients died there between January and April. After that a significant decline set in. Between May and September the death rate was 12.7 percent.

That percentage is considerably higher if only patients in intensive care are considered. There, 39.8 percent of people who needed artificial respiration died in the first months of the year. In the later months it was 33.7 percent, about a third of the patients.

Germany has reported more than 75,000 deaths from the virus since the outbreak began. The country has been in lockdown since December, but some states are increasingly opting for their own corona policy. Small Saarland, for example, wants to make the lockdown measures much more flexible after Easter.

07.10-‘Ga picknicken’

Catering entrepreneurs hope to be able to greet many people in the inner cities later on Sunday for a rural picnic moment. The idea of ​​the picnic to support entrepreneurs originated in Breda, where a similar initiative was already taking place at the end of February. According to the initiators, entrepreneurs in various cities are participating, including Alkmaar, Maastricht, Bergen op Zoom and Venray.

People who come to the picnic do not need to bring their own food and drink. The pubs and restaurants use their take-out function to provide food and drink for everyone. The picnic is a response to the cabinet decision to keep the terraces closed for the time being.

The branch organization Koninklijke Horeca Nederland said earlier that it understood the initiative. The organization hopes that the campaign will send a ‘clear signal’ to The Hague. This is because “the water is on the lips of many entrepreneurs.” According to KHN, the catering industry can open safely with due observance of the corona regulations.

06.40 – Infections Germany down

The number of new corona cases in Germany is again lower than the day before. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German counterpart of the RIVM, registered 17,176 new corona infections on Sunday morning.

A day earlier, 20,472 new cases were reported, compared to about 21,573 on Friday.

In total, the coronavirus has been diagnosed in 2,772,401 residents of Germany since the start of the pandemic. In the past 24 hours, another 90 people died from Covid-19. The corona virus has now claimed at least 75,870 lives in Germany.

In Germany, the lockdown will in any case run until April 18. The decision to limit the number of social contacts around Easter with measures was withdrawn by Merkel on Wednesday after a storm of criticism.

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