“Everyone finally wants to relax”: Karl Lauterbach makes an opening proposal before the Corona summit - and the opposition calls for lockdown easing before Easter.
On Wednesday (March 3rd) another corona summit by the federal and state governments is scheduled.
In contrast to the last time, the meeting is highly explosive: politics has to find a balance between worries about mutations and the desire to open up.
Calls for openings for business and schools are loud.
Karl Lauterbach also made a proposal for a way out of lockdown at the weekend.
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Berlin / Munich - A few days before the Corona summit, the outcome of the next crisis meeting seems completely open: On the one hand, there are several calls for openings, for example for restaurants.
On the other hand, virus mutations are worrying governments.
In the federal government of Chancellor Angela Merkel * (CDU), a comprehensive opening was apparently not discussed until Pentecost * - i.e. at the end of May.
Corona summit is approaching: Lauterbach fears a violent dispute - and makes a concrete opening proposal
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach described the situation before the summit with a drastic picture: "Two trains are racing towards each other," he tweeted with a view to the meeting and the apparently incompatible positions.
The Mahner Lauterbach also diagnosed a comprehensive opening request in Germany on Sunday: "All" people now wanted to "finally" relax, he explained.
He could be right: polls at the weekend did not show a very clear picture - but a clear majority in favor of easing the lockdown.
And so the SPD expert also made a specific proposal: If you combine two methods, openings are possible, wrote Lauterbach.
First of all, an “immediate” switch to one instead of two vaccinations is necessary in order to reduce the number of hospital admissions.
On the other hand, Lauterbach spoke out in favor of initially weekly corona antigen tests in schools, companies and the test centers.
On the day of the test you are allowed to go to shops: "This is how you make virtue out of necessity: openings become an incentive for testing."
Corona summit with Merkel: “Gastronomy before Easter”?
Lindner applies pressure
It remains to be seen whether this scenario will play a role on Wednesday.
It is considered likely that incidence levels 35, 50 and 100 will remain key elements of the agreement.
Depending on the infection situation, more openings for shops, more contacts and more school lessons would be possible regionally under 35, but tightening is stipulated in the case of poorer values.
Basically, that would be a corona traffic light *, like the one that existed last year.
But rapid tests are likely to become an issue - Merkel had recently conceded the test concept from her minister Jens Spahn and postponed the question to the summit.
But whether critics will be satisfied with it remains to be seen - the desires are great.
"There can be no permanent lockdown until we have finally made progress in vaccinating," said FDP boss Christian Lindner.
"With quick tests, good masks, air purifiers and other innovative concepts, retail, culture and gastronomy can open before Easter", he explained.
Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) also wanted to present a paper to Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country leaders at the weekend.
One of the goals, apparently, is to open outdoor restaurants in Germany around Easter.
Meanwhile, the paediatricians are calling for schools and daycare centers to be opened quickly.
"Even after virus mutations have occurred, children and adolescents are not the drivers of the pandemic," said the president of the professional association of paediatricians (BVKJ), Thomas Fischbach, the editorial network Germany.
“That is why all schools and daycare centers can and must be reopened immediately.
They do not play a significant role in the infection process *. ”A further closure of the schools would massively increase the collateral damage for children and young people, warned Fischbach.
Corona dispute before the summit: Prime Minister hopes for opening - Greens are calling for "urgently needed" measures
There could be some approval in the federal states, at least for openings in the economic sector.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD), for example, considers the reopening of many shops and facilities from the spring to be sensible.
"With quick tests, a private organizer or host, regardless of whether they run a restaurant, shop or museum, can ensure that their customers are hardly at risk of infection and thus operate their business again," she told
Bild on Sunday
.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, elections will take place on March 14th *.
Your Baden-Württemberg office colleague Winfried Kretschmann had recently thought about easing the contact restrictions.
But there is also the demand for continued corona measures.
The Bundestag Greens want an extension of the home office obligation.
"We are probably at the beginning of a third wave," said the Greens labor market expert Beate Müller-Gemmeke on Saturday.
"If the contacts in schools increase again, then in return we have to strengthen measures in the world of work in order to prevent a massive increase in corona infections." It is therefore "urgently necessary" to have the home office regulation beyond March 15 to extend.
Corona lockdown in Germany: Müller promises a loosening of the basic framework - but new problems threaten
Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD) meanwhile gave hope for clear opening plans.
He assumes that common criteria for a step-by-step opening strategy in the corona crisis will be decided at the summit.
"The basis will be a step-by-step plan that we have already formulated in Berlin," said the chairman of the dpa conference of prime ministers.
"I firmly expect that we will agree on a basic framework that the countries can use for orientation."
Meanwhile, it is also clear that not only Germany has to get Corona under control in order to stop the pandemic: MPs from four parliamentary groups spoke out on
Merkur.de
*
at the weekend
for more speed in the global vaccine distribution - otherwise an uncontrolled mutation could occur threatened, warned the FDP politician and infectiologist Andrew Ullmann.
(
fn / dpa / AFP
) *
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