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Chancellor Merkel: "We now have to move forward step by step"
Photo: Felix Zahn / photothek.net / imago images / photothek
One day before the federal-state meeting on corona policy, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has apparently spoken out in favor of cautious openings.
"We're coming out of a long lockdown and now have to move forward step by step," said Merkel, according to the AFP news agency, at a meeting of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group.
According to Merkel, however, a mechanism must be an integral part of the opening strategy if the number of infected people should rise again.
"We need an emergency brake when the numbers go up again," Merkel is quoted as saying.
She wants to discuss details with the Prime Ministers on Wednesday.
The term “emergency brake” also appears in a draft for the summit resolution proposal that SPIEGEL has received.
From the second working day after a certain seven-day incidence has been exceeded, the rules that were in effect until March 7th should come into force again.
The exact incidence value that this should be is not yet specified in the document.
It can be assumed that there will be controversial discussions on this point at the federal-state summit.
Shutdown is to be extended in principle
The draft, dated Monday evening, also shows that the shutdown is to be extended to March 28th.
Easings are planned in some areas.
For example, the contact restrictions are to be eased slightly and some shops are to be reopened.
The Chancellor had already signaled her readiness to cautiously relax the corona shutdown at the end of February.
In the contact restrictions, on the subject of schools and vocational schools as well as sports groups, restaurants and culture, she saw areas for which packages of an opening strategy had to be put together, Merkel said at the time.
However, she did not name any concrete steps.
It remains to be seen whether the paper will actually become a draft resolution in its current form and whether it will be approved by the prime ministers.
Several country leaders had recently expressed their views, some of them very different, about the further course of the pandemic.
Merkel wants to prioritize schools and daycare centers for tests
Merkel obviously attaches great importance to an extensive test strategy.
Daycare centers and schools should initially be given priority.
The rapid tests are currently not yet sufficiently available, she is quoted as saying.
However, a total of 96 applications for rapid tests would be checked for approval.
On Tuesday evening, the government will talk to business representatives about how rapid tests could be introduced in companies.
According to the meeting participants, the Chancellor is said to have spoken out against starting corona vaccinations in general practitioners' practices now.
There is still a lack of vaccine for this.
It "makes no sense" to only deliver 100 doses to each practice when the demand is significantly higher.
Merkel believed that family doctors could only be "included" from April onwards.
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fek / Reuters / AFP / dpa