At the Corona summit on Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel will decide with the Prime Minister to extend the lockdown.
First details leaked.
At the
Corona
* summit
on Tuesday, January 19, an extension of the
lockdown
in
Germany
is expected to be
decided.
Chancellor Angela Merkel * (CDU) and the Prime Ministers want to react to the virus mutation *.
Before the
Corona summit,
experts criticize
the crisis management of the federal and state governments.
You are demanding a hard but short
lockdown
- without compromise.
This ticker is updated regularly.
Update from January 18, 10:01 p.m
.: Before the federal-state meeting on Tuesday, the federal government is faced with criticism.
The Corona Expert Council of North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister and designated CDU boss
Armin Laschet
chooses clear words in the direction of
Angela Merkel
& Co. In a three-page letter, scientists around the virologist
Hendrik Streek
call for
a rethinking of the applicable regulations.
The second sentence of the paper immediately comes up with the accusation that the previous measures “did not bring the success desired by politicians.” Even if the number of infections has fallen, “the general, preventive strategy of
lockdown has
the vulnerable groups - people in the elderly - and nursing homes as well as in general in older age - not sufficiently helped. "
+
Armin Laschet (r) trusts the "Expert Council Corona" in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Among other things, he is advised by the Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck (l).
(Archive photo)
© Federico Gambarini / dpa
Before Corona summit: criticism of the government - "neither factual nor expedient"
Because, in addition, “many economic existences” are faced with “hopelessness”, politics runs “the risk of no longer reaching and convincing the population as a whole.” The communication of the measures is too “unspecific” and therefore “neither factual nor in view of it targeting the social mood. "
Therefore, one now has to stop “merely reacting to current developments depending on the situation.” This requires “the strength not to present one's own action as having no alternative, but to convey it as a time-based selection from a range of different possibilities.”
In the letter, the experts also criticize the current state of research and complain about a lack of knowledge: "It is astonishing and unacceptable that
too little is known
about the places of infection and the dynamics of the epidemiological events since the
lockdown
in spring 2020."
“Looking at the future normality to be described” would ultimately lead to “significant questions”.
Specifically: “How do we shape the
lockdown
for the next few months, especially taking into account the collateral effects that are escalating in existential worries, and by no means only of an economic nature?
How and under what conditions do we organize the process of successive opening?
How do we prevent a third
lockdown
in the high risk phase ahead
? ”Questions that the prime ministers could deal with on Tuesday.
Merkel's corona summit: is the mega lockdown coming?
Experts demand a clear line - "no half measures"
First report from January 18, 2021
:
Berlin - The
corona lockdown
is likely to be extended.
That much had already
leaked
before the
Corona summit
from Chancellor
Angela Merkel
* (CDU) and the Prime Minister.
And that, although the number of reported new infections in the wake of the hard
lockdown
has finally been slowly falling since December, the situation in the German
intensive care units has
eased slightly.
But the look at the coronavirus mutation in England stirs up a deep-seated, only seemingly forgotten fear in many: The tragic images from Bergamo in spring 2020.
"We have a considerable risk - that is the risk of
mutation,
" said government spokesman Steffen Seibert on Monday in the federal press conference, one day before the
Corona summit
.
In other countries, the infection curves have risen abruptly.
The virus variant B.1.1.7.
is apparently many times more contagious than the original
Sars-CoV-2 variant
.
Merkel's Corona summit: RKI reported 7141 new infections within 24 hours on Monday
The
Robert Koch Institute (RKI)
reported 7141 new infections
on Monday.
Comparably little if you think of the almost 30,000
new infections
in 24 hours in December.
But the comparison with the sad peak values alone is not enough to assess the situation as relaxed.
The
RKI continues to
describe the
incidence
and
risk of infection
as "very high", as stated in the institute's management report on Monday, January 18.
The 7-day incidence on Monday is 134 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The
7-day R-value
is 0.89.
Before Merkel's Corona summit: Markus Söder announces lockdown extension until mid-February
Even before
Merkel's Corona summit
with the
Prime Minister
, further drastic
measures
are being discussed.
There
is talk of
ultra lockdown
.
Schools and daycare centers could be closed completely,
curfews
tightened - and the
contact restrictions
could also be sharpened.
A
home office invitation
to companies is also under discussion.
Such tightening can
hardly be justified politically
on the basis of the
current infection
situation.
But the look at
Great Britain
and
Ireland is
frightening.
The risk posed by the mutation is included in the decisions.
Chancellor Angela Merkel recently spoke of a possible tenfold * in incidence by Easter - experts rated this horror scenario as realistic.
"Anyone who loosens up overnight now risks the numbers skyrocketing - Ireland has experienced that tragically," said Bavarian
Prime Minister Markus Söder
in an interview with
Münchner Merkur
* on Monday.
The
lockdown
would be extended until
mid-February
, he announced at the same time.
Again, Söder * wants to plead for the implementation of the strict Bavarian rules such as curfew, FFP2 mask requirement and radius of movement in the other federal states.
Corona summit: Merkel's crisis management under criticism - experts clearly demand a decision
At least with regard to the
extension of the lockdown, there
seems to be an
agreement
on the day before
Merkel's Corona summit
.
Support can also be heard from expert circles - but with one
point of criticism
: "It makes no sense to do things by halves because that unnecessarily prolongs the lockdown," says Viola Priesemann, physicist and research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization .
The researcher pleaded before the
federal-state consultations
on the
Corona
* course
on Monday in the Corona special committee of the state parliament in Hanover for a short but hard lockdown.
In neighboring countries such as France, Belgium and Austria, it was possible to sustainably reduce the number of cases.
Politicians must now make a clear decision.
A compromise in the measures does not help.
Merkel's Corona Summit: Virologist Streeck criticizes contact restrictions in the open air
The
Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck is
also a
critic of the crisis management of the federal and state governments in the
special Corona meeting
.
He urgently advised the development of a better database on the
corona epidemic
.
In the majority, one does not know where people were infected, whether certain professions might be particularly affected, how well hygiene concepts work and to what extent an
infection process can
still be controlled.
There was no guideline and long-term management of the epidemic with foresight.
"Numbers games and threatening predictions don't help."
Both Priesemann and Streeck criticized the
contact restrictions
in the
open air
.
There, if distance rules are observed, the risk of infection is 20 times lower, said Priesemann.
The negative consequence of the restriction is that people then meet in secret at home, where mostly no masks are worn, said Streeck.
(nai) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network.
