Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the Germans with a video message on Saturday because of the rising corona numbers.
In it she expresses a clear demand.
Berlin - Almost two years after the start of the pandemic, Germany-wide new corona infections are setting a new record every day.
Because this also increases the number of Covid sufferers in intensive care units, some clinics are now even preparing to move their patients to other federal states.
Chancellor Angela Merkel therefore called for a conference of prime ministers with the federal and state governments on Thursday, which was finally scheduled for November 18.
Now the 67-year-old speaks up again with an urgent demand - both to politicians and to citizens.
Angela Merkel: The Chancellor's clear demand on the corona situation
In her video podcast published on Saturday, Merkel speaks of “difficult weeks that lie ahead of us.” The reason for this is the rapid development of the pandemic, which has become more dramatic because not enough people have been vaccinated, “for a sufficient one Building protection for all of us. ”This development worries her“ very much. ”
It is now important to determine a joint approach between the federal government and the states at the coming Corona summit.
Merkel cites the use of a hospitalization index as a central requirement of the conference.
This is the value "that indicates the number of corona patients in the hospitals and shows us the seriousness of the situation."
Finally, with the help of a threshold to be determined, one could also react at the regional level.
In other words, supra-regional measures such as the 3G rule should continue to apply.
But as soon as a federal state or a district reaches its limit, "additional steps to contain the pandemic would have to be taken."
Merkel on the Corona situation in Germany: Tighter measures and vaccinations in focus
How exactly these "additional steps" should look like, the Chancellor does not specify in her almost six-minute video.
It only indicates that they would have to go beyond 3G, in some places 2G and a mask requirement.
However, she does not address a lockdown for unvaccinated people, for example, as Austria is now apparently planning to do.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel is urgently calling for a hospitalization index and a higher vaccination rate.
© IMAGO / Political-Moments
The key is to control all the measures that have been decided more strictly, said Merkel.
There is one thing she continues to adhere to: “Only a complete vaccination offers effective protection against infection.” This is known from the experience gained from administering the vaccine billions of times.
Therefore, she appeals to everyone's sense of responsibility to get vaccinated.
The booster vaccinations would therefore also have to be focused much more than has been the case up to now.
This is the only way “we can save our country a lot this winter”, said the Chancellor in her video message.
(mef)
List of rubric lists: © Screenshot / Press and Information Office of the Federal Government