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Click and Meet - hardly introduced, already over
Photo: Ralph Peters / imago images / Ralph Peters
It is actually clear to everyone what the federal and state governments have to decide at their video conference on Monday.
On Sunday, the seven-day incidence nationwide rose to 104. The Robert Koch Institute again speaks of an exponential growth in the number of infections and the third wave, in which Germany is now, is likely to be even more violent than because of the virus mutation B.117 the two in front of it.
Vaccination and testing is not yet possible across Germany as widely as it would be necessary.
It is now clear: we can no longer fight the virus with vaccinations alone.
It doesn't look like openings at the moment.
At their last conference two weeks ago, the country chiefs and the Chancellery agreed to cash in all of the openings that had been decided upon if the incidence exceeded 100.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had already prophesied after the vaccination summit on Friday: "I would have liked to have done without this emergency brake, but that will not be possible."
And so it says in the draft resolution for Monday, which was submitted to SPIEGEL on Sunday: "In view of the exponentially increasing infection dynamics, the emergency brake agreed in the last resolution must be implemented consistently." The lockdown is to be extended until April 18.
On April 19, the country leaders and the Federal Chancellor want to meet again.
But can that even work in a country that prefers to always pass the "crackdown" on to the next lower level?
Because whether the emergency brake is applied was ultimately left to federalism again.
Each federal state, each district decided differently:
Brandenburg did not write the emergency brake in the Corona regulation and relied on the individual responsibility of the districts.
A binding return to the restrictions should essentially only occur from an incidence of 200.
Finally, Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke stated that this individual responsibility did not take off: He announced a decree should the districts not adhere to the emergency brake.
In Saxony, the mayors wrote a letter to their prime minister: They demanded a move away from the incidence values - the withdrawal of openings is simply no longer conveyable to the people.
Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, on the other hand, ruled out any easing.
"It doesn't work," he said in a video conference about the last decisions made with the Chancellor.
In North Rhine-Westphalia it was exactly the other way around: The district of Düren asked to be excluded from school openings in the state due to the increasing number of infections.
The Ministry of Education rejected the application.
The mayors of Duisburg and Dortmund also wanted to close daycare centers and schools on their own - to the annoyance of Prime Minister Armin Laschet.
Hamburg canceled the openings on the weekend.
»The emergency brake must be pulled nationwide.
But that's probably not even enough. "
Karl Lauterbach
Intensive care physicians recently called for a nationwide lockdown.
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder sees it similarly.
“The emergency brake must apply to everyone.
And consistently, ”he told the“ Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung ”.
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach also emphasized in an interview with “Welt”: “The emergency brake must be pulled nationwide.
But that's probably not even enough. "
The federal and state governments advise on night curfews
The draft of the Chancellery therefore also mentions additional measures.
In counties with incidence
values
well over 100,
nocturnal exit
restrictions are to be added - the period is still unclear.
Schools and daycare centers are to be closed again unless tests can be carried out twice a week or if the incidence values rise above 200.
Travel is advised against in the
decision
paper
.
The federal and state governments want to check whether trips abroad can be linked to quarantine and mandatory testing regardless of incidences.
This should be particularly interesting for all those who have been looking forward to booking their Mallorca holiday for Easter after the Spanish island is no longer considered a risk area.
But in the paper there are also a few openings through the back door:
There is talk of a
“low-contact vacation” concept
that people can take in their own federal state - in holiday apartments or on campsites where they can take care of themselves.
As part of model projects, it should also be tested in individual regions whether individual
areas of public life
can be
opened
up with strict protective measures and a test concept
.
Why was it opened at all?
Well, the idea comes early.
Because the strange thing is: It was already clear since the beginning of the year that the number of infections from the corona mutant would skyrocket.
It was also clear that we need to vaccinate faster and test more.
Experts like the virologist Christian Drosten called for harder lockdowns from the start.
The no-covid initiative proposed a competition in combating pandemics with test concepts.
But these demands were ignored by the federal and state governments.
Instead, they gave in to the economy and opened up - without adequate test concepts.
Now they have to catch these errors again through the next lockdown.
"With all due understanding for our spring fever," wrote SPD leader Sakia Esken on Twitter, "as long as testing and vaccination do not work, we have to postpone the planned openings and take another step back into lockdown."
It sounded a bit like surrendering to one's own mismanagement.
The half-hearted shutdowns that seem never to end have worn people down and not helped the economy.
How many people have dared to go into the shops for click-and-meet in the last few weeks?
Or to the hairdresser?
Two weeks after the last Prime Minister's Conference, the question remains: Why was it opened at all?
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