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Jens Spahn: Doesn't want any easing after January 10th
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn calls for the nationwide shutdown to continue after January 10th.
"In view of the still too high numbers, it is necessary to extend the measures, the restrictions," said the CDU politician on the program "RTL Aktuell".
To justify this, he also referred to a maximum number of Covid 19 patients in intensive care units.
According to the German Hospital Association, 5,726 people are currently in intensive care;
during the first wave of the pandemic in April there were around 2900.
The prime ministers of the federal states will discuss the next steps with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on Tuesday.
You have to reduce the infection rate and keep it low for a longer period of time, said Spahn.
That is better than loosening up too early "and then possibly facing difficult questions again in a few weeks".
Spahn wants to keep schools closed
According to the health minister, schools and daycare centers should also remain closed.
That is difficult for pupils and parents, but: "It is easier for everyone to have schools closed for a week longer than to open them and then be faced with debates again at some point in a few weeks."
At the same time, Spahn assured that all nursing home residents could be vaccinated during the month.
“We can achieve that goal in January.
And that is what we want to and will achieve with the federal states. "
He again rejected criticism of the government's vaccination strategy.
"It's going exactly as planned," he said.
1.3 million doses of vaccine had been delivered to the federal states by the end of the year.
Exactly the quantities that he had announced for weeks would be delivered "with the indication that it would be scarce at the beginning and that we therefore have to prioritize".
In view of the slow start of the corona vaccination, the critical voices against the federal government and the EU had increased.
In the SPIEGEL conversation, for example, Biontech boss Uğur Şahin criticized the European ordering strategy.
“There was an assumption that many other companies would come with vaccines.
Obviously the impression prevailed: We'll get enough, it won't be so bad, and we have it under control. "
"Gross Failure" or "Overall Good"?
The neurologist Frauke Zipp from the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina even spoke in the daily newspaper “Die Welt” of “a gross failure of those responsible”.
She asked why they hadn't ordered more vaccine at risk in the summer.
The vaccination works "all in all well," it was well prepared in the care facilities and vaccination centers, said Spahn, however.
“There is no question that it would be nicer to have more vaccine, and that's exactly what we're trying to do.” The federal government is talking to the manufacturer Biontech and the State of Hesse about how to create an additional production facility in Marburg as early as February .
Biontech had taken over a Novartis plant for vaccine production there.
In an interview with SPIEGEL, Şahin said: "Our new production facility in Marburg will perhaps be ready in February, far earlier than planned, and be able to produce up to 250 million cans in the first half of the year."
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bbr / dpa / AFP