Today it is about the progress of the Americans with their vaccination campaign, about the delays in the planned rapid test offensive by Jens Spahn - and about the residential summit.
US citizens can hope for vaccination soon
It's a shockingly high number: in the USA, a good
500,000 people have died as a result of their viral disease
since the outbreak of the corona pandemic
.
That is more deaths than the country had to complain about in World War II.
President Joe Biden and his wife Jill remembered the dead with a funeral ceremony at the White House.
But America wouldn't be America if there wasn't also
hope for better times
.
In the past few weeks, the number of nine infections has dropped significantly.
Meanwhile, an average of around 77,000 new cases are reported per day; at the height of the crisis in January, the seven-day average was 250,000 new infections per day.
The television shows pictures of happy nurses who are already closing the emergency wards for Covid sufferers in some states.
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US President Joe Biden wants to massively expand the number of daily vaccinations soon
Photo: Evan Vucci / AP
Virus mutants are also spreading in the USA.
At the same time, the government's vaccination program is making good progress.
Joe Biden had promised
100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days of
his tenure, and he is expected to exceed this target.
So far, 63 million vaccinations have been administered, and a good 13 percent of the US population have received at least one dose from Pfizer / Biontech or Moderna.
A good 1.8 million vaccinations are currently administered every day.
The number could soon rise to up to three million vaccinations a day.
In the next six weeks alone, a good 145 million additional vaccine doses are to be delivered.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also expected to be released by the end of the month.
Preliminary estimates suggest that every adult in the United States could be vaccinated by June.
Variant B.1.1.7: More contagious - or only longer contagious?
A damper for Jens Spahn
The idea is actually good.
In the perfect case, it works like this:
Anyone who goes to a restaurant or the theater does a Corona quick test shortly beforehand
and can occur if the result is negative.
Such tests are also helpful in schools, daycare centers or during sports so that these facilities can be reopened.
Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) actually wanted to introduce rapid tests across the board from March 1st.
At least that was his full-bodied promise.
But now Chancellor Angela Merkel, his boss, has conceded Spahn's plan for the time being.
Apparently the matter did not appear mature enough to the Chancellor.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel, party colleague Jens Spahn: test offensive postponed
Photo:
Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
In any case, the expansion of the range of rapid tests is not to be discussed until the federal-state consultations on March 3rd.
The rapid tests are to be embedded in the general opening strategy, which Merkel then wants to talk to the prime minister about.
Whatever that means.
How to proceed afterwards: so far unclear.
What else?
There are no tests, rooms, or staff: Jens Spahn's quick test strategy is so sketchy
Criticism of the Groko before residential summit
In the pandemic, the question of how we live becomes even more important than usual. The tighter the dwelling, the greater the stress level, especially for families with children.
It is fitting that Chancellor Angela Merkel and several ministers in her cabinet want to take stock of the grand coalition's “housing offensive” at a housing summit today.
The government had planned, among other things, to create 1.5 million new apartments and homes and to strengthen tenants' rights.
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Apartment buildings in the Mitte district of Berlin
Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
The
real estate industry
lets the government know what it thinks of its housing policy before the summit: not much.
The Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Immobilienwirtschaft Deutschland declares that the
supply of housing in the big cities is still scarce
, "prices are rising and there is a lack of building land." 5 million new homes will be built.
On the other hand, tenants' representatives are complaining.
Before the summit, the campaign alliance »Rent Stop!«, An association of trade unionists and tenants' associations, criticized the fact that the situation on the housing market was still tense for many people in the corona crisis due to the loss of income.
The alliance demands, among other things, a nationwide rent freeze for the next six years.
Real estate: that's how many square meters we need to feel good
Loser of the day ...
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As a supporter of Donald Trump, Mike Lindell was a frequent guest in the White House - before
Photo: Alex Brandon / AP
... is the American bedding producer
Mike Lindell
.
Almost every child in the USA knows him as "My Pillow Guy".
Lindell appears on commercials almost every day, promoting pillows from his own factories.
Now Lindell could be doomed for having been a little too zealous for
Donald Trump
over the past few months
.
As a loyal supporter of the then president, Lindell had repeatedly put various conspiracy myths about election fraud into the world in interviews, especially around the turn of the year.
The
software company Dominion
, manufacturer of voting machines, has therefore sued Lindell.
Dominion accuses the pillow man of repeatedly spreading claims, without any evidence, that Dominion manipulated Trump's victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Dominion is demanding $ 1.3 billion in damages from Lindell.
For that he will probably have to sell some pillows.
The latest news from the night
Biden mourns - Fauci attacked:
More than half a million Covid deaths are registered in the USA.
President Joe Biden campaigned for optimism in spite of his grief.
Virus expert Anthony Fauci attacked ex-President Donald Trump
El Chapo wife arrested in the USA:
Emma Coronel Aispuro is said to have supported her husband, drug boss El Chapo, in the activities of his cartel and in his escape from prison.
She has now been arrested in the United States
Oh come on, I'll fly you home:
two hours in the jet instead of days in the train: According to media reports, the then US President Donald Trump made an unusual proposal to the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un
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I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Roland Nelles