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NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU)
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
In North Rhine-Westphalia there will be no special treatment for those who have already been vaccinated and genesis for the time being.
This is what Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) said in a speech to the Düsseldorf state parliament.
The aim is to give all citizens back their basic rights restricted in the corona pandemic as quickly as possible - but the Federal Government is responsible for drawing up a corresponding ordinance.
Laschet is bowing to a timetable decided on Monday: Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had agreed at the vaccination summit with the prime ministers to relax those vaccinated - however, the exact details were not discussed. An ordinance is only planned for the end of May, and Bavaria, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, among others, quickly initiated their own implementations. North Rhine-Westphalia, on the other hand, will wait, said Laschet. The federal and state governments would have to act in concert.
A quarter of the people in North Rhine-Westphalia are now vaccinated.
"We have been at the top of the vaccination quota among the major federal states for weeks," said Laschet.
"If we maintain the vaccination rate, we have a great chance that people will soon feel that things are progressing." The CDU boss appealed to people to continue to follow corona rules: "Only by minimizing social contacts can we get the third Wave finally breaking. "
Maintain "Consistent Lockdown"
With a view to the corona situation in North Rhine-Westphalia, Laschet therefore warned against rash hopes. The exponential growth of the third wave was slowed down, but in numerous cities and districts the incidence of newly infected people per 100,000 inhabitants has been over 200 for days. "The number of intensive care patients is growing every day, and more and more younger people are in bed."
In order to get the situation under control, Laschet wants to maintain a "consistent lockdown" in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the vaccination rate must be increased and a lot of testing must continue.
The curfew will also initially be retained regardless of constitutional issues: "In North Rhine-Westphalia the rule applies as it has been decided by the federal government." Several dozen cases are currently pending before the constitutional court in Karlsruhe against the emergency brake law that has been in force since Saturday.
Above all, many plaintiffs consider the mandatory night curfews to be unconstitutional.
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