Kretschmer expects more deaths in the fourth corona wave

The corona virus continues to spread in Saxony.

The Free State has been a Germany-wide hotspot for a week.

The Prime Minister fears more deaths than in the previous waves.

Meanwhile, the AfD is suing the 2G rule, and a minister is infected.

Dresden - The corona virus is spreading rapidly in Saxony, and Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer fears more deaths than in the previous waves.

"We are only at the beginning of a harsh winter: The wave that we have in front of us will overshadow all previous waves," said the CDU politician of "Bild am Sonntag".

“This fourth wave will demand more victims, including more fatalities, than anything we have known before.” At the same time, Kretschmer prepared people for the fact that the tense situation would continue for months.

“We know from last year that we have to hold out until Easter.

This wave will not be over before then. ”The federal and state governments want to talk about the corona situation again next Thursday.

The Free State has been the Corona hotspot in Germany for more than a week.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) determined a seven-day incidence of 670.9 on Sunday.

The day before, the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week was 620.7.

In the district of Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains, the value on Sunday morning was 1153.6.

This makes it the district with the second highest incidence in Germany after the Bavarian Rottal-Inn (1198.7).

On Saturday the order was the other way around.

Prime Minister Kretschmer emphasized that Germany still had the chance to prevent a lockdown over the Christmas period.

"But we are running out of time." He called for a 2G rule throughout Germany to avoid infection from unvaccinated people.

Contacts would also have to be reduced and as many larger events as possible, such as Christmas markets across the country, canceled.

Last Monday, Saxony was the first federal state to introduce the 2G rule in large parts of public life.

This means that only vaccinated and convalescent people are allowed to go to restaurants, pubs or discos, a negative test is no longer enough.

Since then there has been an enormous run on the mobile vaccination centers, which are reaching their limits.

The utilization of the vaccination missions is currently 150 percent, said Kai Kranich from the DRK Saxony, which coordinates the mobile vaccination teams.

"The current rush on the teams means that nationwide citizens who want to be vaccinated wait several hours for the vaccination and hundreds of them have to be turned away every day."

The Ministry of Social Affairs announced on request that the capacity of the 30 teams will be doubled on Monday.

A further increase in capacity is planned and will be discussed in the cabinet on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the AfD parliamentary group is taking legal action against the new Corona Protection Ordinance in the Saxon state parliament. The MPs want the Constitutional Court to review the 2G rule, as the parliamentary group announced on Sunday. To this end, a norm review complaint was filed on Friday. “The 2-G rule amounts to compulsory vaccination. This compulsory vaccination is unconstitutional, ”said parliamentary group leader Jörg Urban.

The Lord Mayor of Annaberg-Buchholz, Rolf Schmidt (Free Voters), has spoken out in favor of a nationwide 1G rule against the corona pandemic.

According to this, only those who have been tested would have access to indoor restaurants as well as leisure and cultural facilities - regardless of whether they were vaccinated or unvaccinated, Schmidt told the German press agency.

The 2G rule plays vaccinated and unvaccinated against each other and leads to less testing.

Especially since people who have been vaccinated can become infected with the corona virus and pass it on.

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On Sunday it became known that the Saxon culture and tourism minister Barbara Klepsch (CDU) was infected with the corona virus.

After the first cold symptoms appeared, both a rapid test and a subsequent PCR test confirmed this, the Ministry of Culture announced.

Klepsch (56), who was fully vaccinated, has been in quarantine at home since Friday.

dpa