CDU boss Armin Laschet wants to think about the Easter days about which measures could effectively contain the third wave of the corona pandemic. The jointly decided Easter rest did not work, said Laschet on Wednesday evening in the ZDF “heute journal”. “That is why we now have to think about the Easter days together, what is a substitute, where can we introduce further protective mechanisms, where can we bring life down, this has to be discussed. The solution just doesn’t exist if you ask me. “
When asked whether there was still time to think about it for a few days in view of the rapidly increasing number of infections, the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister said: “No, we don’t have the time, but we saw Maundy Thursday / Holy Saturday in the example that if you decide something too quickly, the practitioners will say: It won’t work. ”That is why it is good that you are now thinking about exactly that. “What is effective, what does it achieve that we break this third wave. The situation is extremely serious and everyone is currently examining all possibilities. “
“Shift down one or more gears”
With the Easter rest, the federal and state governments wanted to declare Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday to be rest days in addition to the Easter holidays. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) canceled the regulation. In view of the increasing numbers, Research Minister Anja Karliczek called on citizens before the holidays to keep contacts as low as possible: “Especially at Easter we should all shift down one or more gears,” she told the German Press Agency.
The numbers have recently increased strongly, which is also due to the very contagious Corona variant B.1.1.7, which was first discovered in Great Britain. This has now reached a share of 88 percent in Germany. This was announced by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Wednesday evening with reference to tests from the past week (March 22-28). Their share has risen continuously.
The spread of the variant is worrying because “according to previous knowledge, it is significantly more contagious and probably causes more severe disease courses than other variants.” Therefore, a further increase in Covid cases in clinics is to be expected.
The scientific director of the Divi intensive care registry, Christian Karagiannidis, warned of an overcrowding in Germany’s intensive care units within four weeks. “Since the middle of March, an additional 1,000 intensive care patients have ended up in the hospitals. If this speed continues, we will have reached the regular capacity limit in less than four weeks, ”said Karagiannidis of the“ Rheinische Post ”(Thursday).
The new chairman of the board of the German Hospital Association (DKG), Gerald Gaß, criticized such warnings in the “Rheinische Post”: “I am also convinced that the horror scenarios that have been spreading from the field of intensive care medicine for days, neither in politics nor in politics will lead to the likely intended reactions in the population. “
– .
