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An emergency paramedic draws the Biontech corona vaccine onto a syringe (symbol image)
Photo: Fabian Sommer / dpa
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Australia: New South Wales reports 239 new infections
04.32 a.m.:
Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, registered 239 new corona cases - more than ever before within 24 hours.
Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, is in the fifth week of a nine-week lockdown.
The lockdown is scheduled to end on August 28th, but the highly contagious Delta variant is spreading, especially in the metropolis.
Only 17 percent of people over 16 in New South Wales are fully vaccinated against Corona.
The Australian government has been criticized for the delayed vaccination start.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the Australian news channel "9News" on Thursday that the lockdown in Sydney could not be ended with vaccinations alone.
"I mean, it will certainly help ... the low (vaccination) numbers we have had must go up and that will certainly help the lockdown efforts, but that alone won't stop the lockdown."
Schäuble and Söder condemn vaccination fatigue in Germany
4.00 a.m.:
Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble is "extremely sad" according to his own statements, CSU boss Markus Söder is annoyed: Both complain about the falling vaccination rate in the fight against the corona virus - and make suggestions to counteract this.
Read more here.
Spahn contradicts RKI boss Wieler in a debate about the incidence value
02.44 a.m.:
In the debate about the incidence as the main
benchmark
in the pandemic, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) contradicted the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler.
"As the vaccination rate increases, the incidence loses its informative value," Spahn told the "Bild".
Therefore, it is "imperative to need further key figures to evaluate the situation," such as the number of newly admitted Covid patients in the hospital.
However, Spahn does not want to do without the incidence entirely: There are by far not enough people in Germany vaccinated "to be able to do without looking at the incidence entirely".
RKI boss Wieler called for a low-incidence strategy in a federal-state switch on Monday and warned of a fourth wave.
Google and Facebook impose compulsory vaccinations for employees
1:20 a.m.:
The employees of the internet
giants
Google and Facebook in the USA have to get vaccinated against the
corona virus
before returning to the offices.
The companies announced this independently on Wednesday (local time).
Google boss Sundar Pichai said that the regulation will initially affect the United States, but will also apply to other regions in the coming months as soon as vaccinations are widely available there.
Read more here.
Prime ministers support compulsory testing for holiday returnees
00.01 a.m.:
The planned general
corona test obligation for those returning from
vacation who have no proof of a complete vaccination or recovery is supported by the heads of government of several federal states. Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller (SPD) told the editorial network Germany (RND) "The tests are the central building block to curb the infection rate in the unvaccinated population." Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer also emphasized that from last year it was known that a lot of people returning from travel would have contributed to the increase in the number of infections. "It is a little extra effort for each of us, but creates a lot of security," said the CDU politician to the RND about a corona test obligation.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) said the goal is not to bring any infections into the country in order to keep the incidences as low as possible and to enable children and adolescents to attend school and daycare as normally as possible.
Brandenburg's head of government Dietmar Woidke had also spoken out on Wednesday evening on the TV station Phoenix for compulsory testing for those "who return from regions that have a higher incidence than we in Germany."
jok / AFP / dpa / Reuters