Vaccinated and immunized people in the process of being freed from all health constraints in Germany?
A bill is presented at the end of the week on this subject.
Worn by the Minister of Justice, Christine Lambrecht (SPD), it was validated by the Council of Ministers, as reported by several German media.
Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday (May 3) that he hoped for an easing of restrictions for these people.
Topics covered will be curfew rules, contact restrictions, testing and quarantine requirements.
To discover
Test, isolation: the procedure to follow in the event of a suspicion of Covid-19
Read also: Why the Council of State has just refused to deconfin immediately the vaccinated people
Only people who can prove that they have received a complete vaccination schedule, or those who had Covid-19 less than 6 months ago, will be able to benefit from this exemption, if it is adopted. For vaccinated people, it will be necessary to be able to provide a digital certificate, via smartphone. However, for people who do not have this tool, it will still be possible to present the certificate in paper format, with a QR code, explains the German daily, Der Tagesspiegel.
Regarding people who have caught Covid-19, the control seems a little more complicated.
It will be necessary to demonstrate to have contracted the virus more than 28 days ago and less than 6 months ago, it is explained.
If the infection dates back more than 6 months, a single injection may be sufficient, specifies the daily.
A negative PCR test will accompany the vaccination certificate.
Read the file: Reconfinement: all about the latest measures against Covid-19
Possible easing of border restrictions
For vaccinated people, it will therefore be possible to take advantage of service professions, such as shopping or hairdressing, without necessarily having done a test beforehand.
Indeed, since March 31, before being able to enter a non-essential store in Berlin for example, the consumer must present a negative antigen test for Covid-19 dated the same day.
This law does not only concern the Germans.
Jens Spahn, Minister of Health, clarified the measures for people arriving on German territory.
These should no longer need to show a negative PCR test, if they have proof of double vaccination.
Quarantine measures could also be dropped, provided that travelers do not arrive from a country plagued by a worrying variant.
Only vaccines approved by the European Union are accepted, such as Biotech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson.
The Russian Sputnik vaccine is not one of them at the moment, although discussions are underway between Russia and Germany.
Another condition: 14 days must have passed since the last injection.
Health situation in Germany
Several reasons justify this desire to lift the restrictions for vaccinated and immunized people.
First, the Minister of Justice referred to studies by the Robert Koch Institute, which demonstrates the absence of risk from people who have contracted the virus.
Then, the health situation in Germany tends to improve.
150 cases have been identified per 100,000 people in the last 7 days.
We also see a reproduction rate (R) of Covid-19 is declining for: as can be seen below, it is 0.97 in Germany and 0.90 in France.
Comparison of the effective reproduction rate between France and Germany.
Our World In Data
The rate of new infections and the rate of deaths are also falling.
The country, which lists an average of 17,815 new contaminations every day, counted 8,364 contaminations and 122 deaths on Monday, May 3.
New contaminations and deaths in Germany.
Reuters - Covid Tracker
If we can see that Germany vaccinates slightly faster than France, it is currently in second place for the number of people fully vaccinated.
Finally, the vaccination schedules are similar for the two European countries, as we can see in the two graphs below:
Share of people who have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Our World In Data
Share of population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 Our World In Data
What about France? The question was asked on April 2: an 83-year-old retiree asked the judge of the Council of State to suspend the travel restrictions taken by the Government so that they no longer apply to vaccinated people. The summary judge rejected his request considering that the vaccinated people could be carriers of the virus and contribute to its spread.