Health ministers meet - Lauterbach for tougher rules

Created: 01/05/2022Updated: 01/05/2022, 4:43 AM

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach brings stricter contact restrictions into the discussion.

© Michael Kappeler / dpa

The omicron variant is spreading rapidly.

On Friday, new rules are to be decided in a federal-state conference.

Everyday life is likely to become even more difficult, especially for those who have not been vaccinated.

Berlin - The federal and state health ministers are meeting at short notice today for a video conference to discuss a change to the corona rules.

A shortening of the quarantine is under discussion in order to be able to maintain important supply areas in the event that the number of infections should rise sharply due to the spread of the Omikron variant.

The education ministers of the federal states also meet for a special service.

They want to discuss how school operations can be secured if the Omikron wave grows.

In some federal states such as Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg, the virus variant Omikron is already predominant, according to the responsible state authorities.

Corona requirements are already being tightened in some regions.

The nationwide seven-day incidence has been increasing day by day since December 30th.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the Prime Ministers of the federal states want to set the further course and take new decisions on Friday.

Stricter contact restrictions

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to enforce tougher contact restrictions in addition to shortened quarantine times.

"Unfortunately, tightening will be necessary to counter the heavy wave that is coming our way," he told the editorial network Germany.

"I will make suggestions."

Lauterbach did not give any details.

However, he emphasized that there was no reason to give the all-clear, especially for those who had not been vaccinated.

"You cannot promise them that the contact restrictions will be lifted for them in the short or medium term," said the minister.

"My appeal to the unvaccinated is that they get vaccinated at least once quickly so that they have at least an important protective effect for the very serious course of the disease."

The SPD politician defended his attempt to shorten the quarantine with a view to the Omikron variant of the virus.

"Studies show that the generation time - including the phase in which the virus spreads in the body and the phase in which a person is contagious - is much shorter with Omikron," he explained.

"So we can shorten the quarantine time to a certain extent without taking any risks."

Focus on important supply areas

The background to the considerations is the concern that important supply areas could be at risk if the number of infections skyrocketed and many employees would have to be quarantined at the same time.

Lauterbach named in particular hospitals, elderly care, police, fire brigade and water and electricity supplies.

New quarantine and isolation rules are required for these areas.

School and travel should also be considered.

more on the subject

Ampel wants tests for unvaccinated people on the job every day

Corona incidence leaps to almost 150: Doctors angry about Spahn's "Booster" call

It will soon be significantly more expensive for speeders and illegal parkers

The German Association of Cities warned that staff shortages must be avoided at all costs.

General Manager Helmut Dedy also assured: "Cities and municipal companies prepare for possible failures with their personnel planning." For example, pandemic plans are created according to which teams can work separately from one another, or duty rosters are designed in such a way that employees from vacation are called upon in the event of bottlenecks could become.

No more area-wide lockdown

Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) told the German Press Agency: "I assume that decisions will be made on Friday, above all to ensure the functionality of the critical infrastructure and the functionality of the health system."

A comprehensive lockdown is no longer possible after changes to the Infection Protection Act by the traffic light parties.

"We want to avoid blanket and blanket closures in the future", assured Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in an interview with the daily newspapers "Stuttgarter Zeitung", "Stuttgarter Nachrichten" and the partner newspapers of the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft.

Lauterbach and Drosten for booster vaccination

From Lauterbach's point of view, the booster vaccination is the best protection against the Omikron variant.

"According to the modeling of the Robert Koch Institute, the goal should be that more than 80 percent of those who have been vaccinated twice are also boosted, that is to say 56 percent of the population," he said.

"Then Omikron has a hard time."

The virologist Christian Drosten made a similar statement: “What really protects against Omikron is the triple vaccination,” said the scientist from the Berlin Charité in the “Coronavirus Update” podcast at NDR-Info.

Therefore, the strong focus on the booster vaccinations in Germany is right and important.

dpa