Corona summit: This is what the federal and state governments are planning

Created: 2022-01-20Updated: 2022-01-20 09:24

By: Tobias Utz

Chancellor Olaf Scholz will lead the Corona summit on Monday.

(Archive photo) © Hannibal Hanschke/AFP

A new Corona summit is coming up: which topics are on the agenda at the federal-state consultations.

Berlin – Germany is in the midst of an omicron wave.

The Corona case numbers * reach a new record every day.

On several days, the number of new infections was already over 100,000.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach* expects the wave to peak in mid-February.

In order to discuss Germany's further strategy in the pandemic, the federal and state governments will again discuss this at a corona summit on Monday.

Various topics come into focus.

So far, there is no draft resolution from the summit meeting, but several issues are emerging -

Corona summit: This is what the federal and state governments are planning

• Corona tests:

  Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach brought prioritization for PCR tests into play on Wednesday evening in the ZDF talk* with Markus Lanz*. This should take the form of a new regulation. The background to the possible measure is that Germany's test systems are presumably exhausted. According to Lauterbach, prioritization is therefore absolutely necessary. Green health expert* Janosch Dahmen demanded in the Rheinische Post on Thursday that the PCR test capacities “should be used first to secure the critical infrastructure and to detect infections in symptomatic people”. He explicitly included schools: "Teachers belong to the staff of the critical infrastructure and should therefore also be able to use PCR test capacities as a priority," says Dahmen in an interview.Carsten Breuer, Major General and head of the Corona crisis team*, made a similar statement. According to Breuer, people from the critical infrastructure should be given priority. The Patient Protection Foundation also demanded that millions of vulnerable people and their relatives should have priority in the PCR tests to determine a corona infection. Eugen Brysch, chairman of the foundation, criticized the news agency AFP on Wednesday that Lauterbach “only wanted to give preference to employees in the tests”. "This means that the seriously ill and those in need of care and their contact persons are no longer covered by the protective shield."that millions of vulnerable people and their relatives should also have priority in the PCR tests to determine a corona infection. Eugen Brysch, chairman of the foundation, criticized the news agency AFP on Wednesday that Lauterbach “only wanted to give preference to employees in the tests”. "This means that the seriously ill and those in need of care and their contact persons are no longer covered by the protective shield."that millions of vulnerable people and their relatives should also have priority in the PCR tests to determine a corona infection. Eugen Brysch, chairman of the foundation, criticized the news agency AFP on Wednesday that Lauterbach “only wanted to give preference to employees in the tests”. "This means that the seriously ill and those in need of care and their contact persons are no longer covered by the protective shield."

• Contact tracing of the health authorities:

  In addition, the contact tracing of the health authorities should be discussed at the Corona summit. Franziska Giffey, Berlin's governing mayor, has recently pushed for new corona rules in this area. In particular, it must be clarified where contact tracing still makes sense so that health authorities can “work more focused” and at the same time be relieved. She called for nationwide uniform regulations.

• Corona loosening:

  New corona loosening should also be discussed. Markus Söder*, Bavaria's Prime Minister, recently focused on the topic. At the Corona summit, he wanted to discuss nationwide rules for a possible opening of the stadiums for Bundesliga games and talk about expanding audience capacities at cultural events, as he told our editorial team.

• Corona vaccination obligation:

  A possible general corona vaccination obligation also causes discussions.

  A rapid debate in the Bundestag is aimed for.

  According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz*, group applications should be discussed across parliamentary groups.

  At the Corona summit, too, a unified line on the subject should be struggled for.

  Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach explained to Markus Lanz again on Wednesday evening how necessary he considers general corona vaccination in Germany to be.

(tu)