“I insist that we formulate a concrete opening perspective on Wednesday,” said Olaf Scholz, referring to the conference of state heads of government with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Corona rapid tests are “part of the way out of lockdown”. Incidence values of 35 and 50 could not be the sole benchmark for easing in the future, according to the Vice Chancellor and SPD candidate for chancellor in the Internet program “Bild live”. If the number of infections “fluctuates a bit, that is something that we – combined with a testing strategy – can possibly do well”.
Regarding possible vacation trips in the summer, Scholz said: “In the summer tens of millions will be vaccinated, and that cannot remain without consequences.” There is also the justified hope “that we can sit in the beer garden again in summer”.
Majority would like easing
In the meantime, a majority of people in Germany are in favor of easing the corona measures – despite the recent increase in the seven-day incidence, the one from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Monday with 65.8 (registered new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within one week ) was specified.
According to a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency, only a third are in favor of maintaining or tightening the current restrictions. On the other hand, 43 percent think the lockdown should be further reduced at the federal-state consultations on Wednesday. 17 percent are even in favor of a complete return to normalcy. Five percent did not provide any information.
Initially, almost three quarters were behind the measures taken by the federal and state governments, which include the closure of shops, schools, restaurants and hotels and the ban on cultural and sporting events with spectators. At the beginning of January, almost two thirds were in favor of maintaining or tightening the measures. Before the last federal-state conference on February 10th, it was only half of the respondents, now the proportion is 35 percent.
Hairdressing salons in Germany are allowed to reopen from March 1st – some did so at midnight
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Schools and daycare centers have now partially reopened, and hairdressers will follow nationwide this Monday. In some federal states, other facilities are now also opening, including garden markets, flower shops, foot care salons and driving schools.
“Massive vaccination failure”
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities called for people to be vaccinated against the corona virus faster and more effectively. Chief Executive Gerd Landsberg said it was unacceptable for “hundreds of thousands of vaccination doses” to be stored in refrigerators while millions of people were waiting to be vaccinated. The German Association of Cities also appealed to the federal states to simplify vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine. It should also be possible to vaccinate people who are in the second group’s turn at short notice, emphasized Managing Director Helmut Dedy. In some federal states, the strict requirements have already been made more flexible – others would have to follow quickly.
The opposition even accused the federal government of “massive vaccination failure”. “After a year of pandemic, it has little more to show than piecemeal or nervous back and forth,” said the parliamentary leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt. Vaccination centers should work at full capacity, general practitioners should be able to vaccinate across the board, and those entitled to vaccinate should easily find out where, when and how they could get an appointment. The new leader of the Left Party, Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, also called for the expansion of vaccination capacities. “Why shouldn’t we at Ikea be able to vaccinate?” She asked.
wa / sti (dpa, afp, rtr)
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