Lockdown light in Lower Saxony: Minister brings extension into play
Created: 12/21/2021, 7:11 PM
From: Jens Kiffmeier
Omikron alarm: Lower Saxony is fighting against it at Christmas with corona rules of warning level 3.
According to Minister Behrens, the lockdown light could take a long time.
Hanover - FFP2 mask requirement in the supermarket, contact restrictions for vaccinated and unvaccinated and closed discos: Lower Saxony is sent to Christmas rest with a strict Corona regulation.
But is that enough?
In view of the rapid expansion, the state government is no longer ruling out an extension of the partial lockdown that has been decided.
"We have a good framework," said State Health Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) on Tuesday.
However, it should be considered whether the measures should not be extended beyond the turn of the year.
Federal state: | Lower Saxony |
Surface: | 47,614 km² |
Population: | 7.982 million (2019) |
Prime Minister: | Stephan Weil (SPD) |
Omikron and Corona in Lower Saxony: Health Minister Behrens brings the extension of lockdown light and warning level 3 into play
While Behrens is looking to the year 2022 and is bringing an expansion of the Christmas rest period including lockdown light and warning level 3 into play over the planned period after New Year's Eve, political concerns about the fifth corona wave are growing.
It is fired by the Omikron virus variant.
Although the course of the disease for vaccinated and convalescents is considered to be milder, the mutation is highly contagious.
The Federal Government's Expert Council therefore assumes that Omikron will become the dominant virus variant within a few weeks and can paralyze large parts of public life in the process.
Because a million-fold infection threatens millions of quarantine orders in one fell swoop, which threatens extensive loss of work.
Incidence in Lower Saxony: Omikron fires corona numbers - the country reacts with lockdown light
In Lower Saxony, the incidence on Tuesday was 173.4, a hotspot is in the Verden district.
In a national comparison, the country in the north still has a low value.
Recently the trend was also downward.
However, experts at the Robert Koch Institute anticipate a quick turnaround due to the spread of Omikron.
Variant B.1.1.529, which was first detected in southern Africa, has already been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "worrying".
Few people at the Christmas market: Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) has ordered Lower Saxony to rest for Christmas.
(Montage from Kreiszeitung.de) © Mike Egerton / Moritz Frankenberg / dpa
100 cases have currently been registered in Lower Saxony.
The number of positive samples has risen from 2.4 to 6.1 percent in the past few days, said Claudia Schröder, deputy head of Lower Saxony's Corona crisis team.
You have to be prepared for the fact that in the course of January the Omikron variant will already be the leading variant of the corona virus.
The first case of the new variant was only detected in the state on December 3.
Corona regulation: Warning level 3 applies to Christmas and New Year's Eve - contact restriction for vaccinated people
The RKI therefore strongly advises massive contact restrictions in the next few days. It is best to have strict guidelines for vaccinated and unvaccinated people as early as Christmas, the institute tweeted on Tuesday. The Prime Minister of the federal states wanted to meet with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the afternoon to discuss how to proceed.
Lower Saxony sees itself in a pioneering role.
At the end of last week, the state government had already put a strict corona regulation into force.
Accordingly, there is a Christmas break from Christmas Eve until January 2, 2022, which already contains close contact specifications.
While unvaccinated people can only meet with two other people from another household, vaccinated and convalescent people also have to limit themselves.
In this group of people, meetings are only possible with 25 people.
At the Corona summit, the limit to ten people is to be negotiated.
Corona rules: If necessary, Lower Saxony wants to adapt the measures to the resolutions of the federal-state summit
Depending on the outcome of the consultation, the state government around Stephan Weil (SPD) did not rule out a re-sharpening. Government spokeswoman Anke Pörksen described this as “more than sporty”, but it was not impossible either. Ultimately, it is important that the federal states act together. In the meantime, Hamburg has already submitted it and decided on a close contact limit for Christmas.
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Regardless of the tightening of the corona rules, Lower Saxony continues to place great hopes in the progress of the vaccination campaign.
"We have a Christmas rest, but no vaccination rest," stressed Health Minister Behrends.
Recently, there has been good development in this area.
In the meantime, 72.2 percent of citizens have been vaccinated twice, and more than 34.6 percent have already received the booster.
Behrends emphasized that this is still the best protection against the corona virus.
The Minister of Health therefore called on all unvaccinated people to take advantage of the country's offers.
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