Special session: Corona situation is fueling political debate

Created: 01/03/2022Updated: 01/03/2022, 4:34 PM

Serpil Midyatli speaks during a morning session.

© Axel Heimken / dpa / picture archive

Too timid and too late - the SPD in the north certifies the Jamaica government's inconsistency in the fight against the corona pandemic.

The number of infections increases to unprecedented heights with the Omikron variant.

But two values ​​also give reason for hope.

Kiel - With the high Corona numbers as a result of the rapid spread of the Omikron variant, the political debate is also gaining momentum in Schleswig-Holstein at the beginning of the year. The SPD accused the state government of the CDU, the Greens and the FDP on Monday for wrong decisions and too late and hesitant action. The country has gambled away its good starting position with relatively few infections and has become an early Omikron hotspot in Germany, said SPD state and parliamentary leader Serpil Midyatli.

The development is experiencing a new dynamic these days: On Tuesday, some tightening of protective measures will come into force, on Friday the state chiefs will discuss the situation with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and on next Monday the state parliament will issue a government declaration from Prime Minister Daniel in a special session Günther (CDU) hear and debate about it.

Meanwhile, infection numbers have also reached new heights as a consequence of club outbreaks. After Christmas parties in discos with numerous corona infections, several thousand visitors were quarantined. With recently 244.3 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days, the country with the longest lowest numbers in Germany is only in the middle and above the national average. Dithmarschen, which has been little affected for a long time, ranks among the top 3 of the German districts with over 600. Last Thursday, 1720 new cases were reported to the health authorities - a record.

On the other hand, hospitals have not seen a dramatic development over the past week. The number of Covid-19 cases treated there even fell slightly to 163 and that of intensive care patients remained stable at 46. The hospitalization incidence, which is important for corona measures - the number of new corona clinic patients within one week per 100,000 people - also stagnated at 2 , 4. It thus remained below the first level of 3.0, which applies to more stringent measures.

From the point of view of SPD state and parliamentary group leader Midyatli, the state government could have taken stricter measures than it did.

"The Schleswig-Holstein Sonderweg has ensured that thousands of people have been quarantined and hundreds have been infected." It is absolutely incomprehensible that clubs remain open after January 4th.

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"The measures taken by the state government in the fourth wave of corona are coming too timid and too late," said Midyatli. Prime Minister Günther's reference to the federal government is a diversionary maneuver. "The establishment of an epidemic emergency of national scope is not a prerequisite for effective protection against infection." Günther underestimated the virus and did not give priority to health protection.

The SPD parliamentary group wants to apply for the state-wide epidemic emergency to be determined in accordance with the Infection Protection Act in the state parliament. The neighboring countries of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg have already done so, said Midyatli. The state parliament in Kiel meets for a special session next Monday. From this Tuesday onwards, some stricter measures will apply, especially for contacts and events. Günther has asked the federal government to determine the epidemic situation on a national level. Otherwise he will also ask the state parliament to determine the epidemic situation for the country.

The Jamaica leaders agreed on some tightening on Sunday.

For events starting on Tuesday, the number of participants is limited to a maximum of 50 indoors and 100 outdoors;

Up to now, a maximum of 1000 applied at half capacity. The contact restriction for vaccinated or convalescent persons to a maximum of ten people no longer only applies in the home, but also in public spaces.

Dance events must generally be reported to the authorities.

In order to comply with the 2G-plus rule in discos and bars, in future only one PCR test will apply, which must not be older than 24 hours.

In nursing and integration facilities, visitors are required to wear an FFP2 mask.

dpa