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Minister of State Braun: "It is not realistic to perfectly protect all vulnerable people"
Photo: Andreas Chudowski / DER SPIEGEL
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Braun, almost 90 percent of the corona deaths are older than 70 years, in Berlin more than half of the victims come from homes.
Has politics failed to protect the elderly and those in need of care in the pandemic?
Braun:
Around 30 million people in Germany belong to the vulnerable group to whom we are currently handing out FFP2 masks.
It is simply not realistic to protect all these people perfectly from a high level of infection.
We spoke to the federal states about hygiene concepts at an early stage, sent FFP2 masks to the homes and prescribed rapid tests.
Even so, we obviously cannot protect them in such a way that the virus cannot be carried into them.
SPIEGEL:
Only now, one year after the outbreak of the pandemic, have the federal and state governments agreed on a uniform protection concept for homes.
It's way too late.
Braun:
As early as April it was agreed with the federal states that every facility must implement a professional hygiene concept.
In the summer it seemed that the number of cases - also in the homes - would stabilize at a low level.
In October we learned that no concept is sufficient if the number of infections in the general population increases too much.
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