Omikron summit: Weil welcomes health ministers conference on the corona situation

Created: 12/20/2021, 10:53 AM

From: Yannick Hanke

The next federal-state meeting will take place on Tuesday, December 21, 2021.

It is about the further procedure with regard to the omicron position.

Stephan Weil warns in advance.

Berlin / Hanover - Even at the end of the year, the corona situation remains tense nationwide.

The Omikron variant keeps politicians, virologists and, above all, the staff in hospitals on their toes.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Prime Ministers meet again for a federal-state conference so that a collective reaction to the current pandemic situation can be made.

A step that is welcomed by Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD).

Federal-state meeting on Tuesday, December 21, 2021: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Prime Minister discuss Omikron's approach

"It is good that Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced another conference of the prime ministers with the federal government for Tuesday," Weil is quoted by the dpa.

The state chief of Lower Saxony is clear how the current corona situation is perceived in his state in general, but also in particular.

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) is part of the renewed federal-state meeting on Tuesday, December 21, 2021. It is about the further corona course of politics, especially with a view to the Omikron variant.

(Kreiszeitung.de-Montage) © Moritz Frankenberg / dpa / Nadine Weigel / dpa

"Many people in Lower Saxony are now worried about the new virus variant area Great Britain and the dramatically increasing number of cases there," says Stephan Weil.

Due to the enormous spread of Omikron, the United Kingdom has already been classified as a virus variant area by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Seven-day incidence in Lower Saxony is increasing slightly - almost 6,700 corona deaths in the state of Stephan Weil (SPD) alone

But there would also be many thousands of new corona infections every day in many other neighboring European countries, including Denmark and the Netherlands, which is in lockdown.

The situation is similar with Lower Saxony, the state governed by Stephan Weil.

On Monday, December 20, 2021, the RKI for Lower Saxony has to report 677 new corona cases.

The day before, 1676 new infections were registered.

The seven-day incidence increased slightly, from 173.8 to 177.1.

There are also three more confirmed coronavirus-related deaths to mourn.

This means that the total number of corona deaths in Lower Saxony alone since the start of the pandemic is 6,685.

Stephan Weil imposes Christmas rest in Lower Saxony - immediate reaction to the spread of Omikron

In general, the new Corona Expert Council * of the newly formed Federal Government had also forecast a sharp increase in Corona infections for Germany.

As a result, the burden on the health system, which has already exhausted its capacities, would increase again.

“The Expert Council thus confirms the concern I have expressed for some time.

At the same time, the additional protective measures already taken as a precaution for Christmas and the turn of the year in Lower Saxony will be confirmed ", says Stephan Weil in this context.

“Well-planned lockdown in early January”: Green politician wants to shut down public life in Germany again

However, the question arises as to whether these corona measures will ultimately be sufficient to prevent the further spread of the virus.

At the federal level, a possible, renewed lockdown for all of Germany * has been discussed for a long time.

A political issue, similar to the debate about a general compulsory vaccination *, on which Green health politician and advocate of compulsory vaccination Janosch Dahmen also commented:

We must get ahead of the omicron wave with our measures.

Our actions today will determine tomorrow's pandemic situation.

Given the extremely high portability of Omikron, we will probably not be able to avoid a lockdown after Christmas.

One possible scenario would be a well-planned lockdown in early January.

Green health expert Janosch Dahmen believes a renewed lockdown is possible with the dpa

Said lockdown should definitely not take place before Christmas.

The new Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had already clearly positioned himself on this.

On Twitter, the Social Democrat speaks rather of an offensively driven booster vaccination campaign.

In addition, Lauterbach wants to "tighten the contact reduction measures".

Contact restrictions: drastically reduce contacts in order to save the health system from total collapse

With this, Lauterbach knew indirectly with the subject of contact restrictions to the federal-state meeting on Tuesday, December 21st.

Because as part of these consultations, preventive measures to protect the critical infrastructure are to be discussed.

In addition, it is planned to adopt the contact-reducing measures already discussed by the Minister of Health to protect the health system from total collapse.

Chancellor Scholz, but also North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) had already announced this in advance.

Background: In addition to his office at state level, the direct successor to the failed CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet is also the chairman of the Prime Minister's Conference.

Omikron: Corona variant makes tightening of the corona rules inevitable

No secret is made of the fact that Omikron in particular makes a rethink or tightening of the Corona rules inevitable.

Because the development of the Corona variant shows "that we also have to be very concerned in this country with regard to overloading our health system and ensuring basic public tasks".

That said Marie Klein-Schmeink, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, opposite the "world".

And "therefore, further precautions urgently need to be taken in order to counteract as well as possible."

Accordingly, it remains to be seen with excitement which resolutions the federal-state meeting will bring with it.

A lockdown in early 2022 is still a possibility.

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