end of the pandemic?
Kretschmann whistles Minister back
Created: 03/24/2022Updated: 03/24/2022 7:48 p.m
Baden-Württemberg Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Bündnis90/Die Grünen).
© Felix Kästle/dpa
Not only the FDP rubbed its eyes: Minister of Social Affairs Lucha is urging the federal government to herald the end of the pandemic phase after Easter.
A requirement with far-reaching consequences.
But then the minister is called off.
Stuttgart – With his call for an early end to the pandemic situation, Baden-Württemberg’s Social Affairs Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) got a bloody nose.
Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann distanced himself from his ministers on Thursday evening.
When asked whether Lucha's letter to Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) was coordinated with Kretschmann, a government spokesman for the dpa in Stuttgart said: "No, he wasn't." Lucha partially backtracked in the evening.
According to reports, the minister also received massive pressure from the heads of the coalition factions of the Greens and CDU, Andreas Schwarz and Manuel Hagel.
Lucha wanted to take personal responsibility
In a letter to Lauterbach, the Greens Minister had previously requested that the federal government should herald the change from the pandemic to the endemic phase at the end of April - i.e. after the Easter holidays.
Lucha thus called for a change of strategy for the end of April, in which there would have been no more tests and no mandatory quarantine.
Among other things, he wrote: "Behaviour should rather be given personal responsibility, for sick people the request to stay at home still applies."
Ministry regrets "misleading impression" of letter
In the evening, his spokesman said the contents of the letter "apparently gave a false and misleading impression".
He added: "We are not explicitly declaring the pandemic to be over." And: There is no change in strategy in the protective measures." The minister's main concern was to relieve the health authorities of unnecessary tasks and thus encourage a change in corona management .
"It was about an impulse for a common medium- and long-term perspective at a time when the pandemic is clearly weakening."
Health authorities are just chasing
In the letter to Lauterbach, Lucha wrote that the health authorities no longer had any influence on the outbreak due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant.
Contact persons had often passed on the infection before their status became known and the quarantine could take effect.
"Currently, the health authorities are using enormous effort to collect registration data from asymptomatic people as well as multiple reports from "free test attempts" from symptomatic people - from which no further measures follow and which also increasingly inadequately reflect the infection process," wrote the minister.
In addition, many people are exempt from quarantine as vaccinated or recovered.
If public health departments were relieved of these superfluous tasks, they could focus on advising nursing homes and hospitals on how to avoid or better control larger outbreaks, Lucha explained.
In the future, the infection process should be monitored primarily with the help of the doctors’ registration data.
Liberals wonder about 'change of heart'
The FDP had welcomed the initiative, but was also surprised: while Kretschmann was complaining to the federal government that the instruments in the fight against the pandemic were missing, Lucha now wanted to treat the corona virus like any other flu virus, said parliamentary group leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke and asked: "Is better knowledge or sheer resignation the reason for the sudden change of heart?" He called on the country to abolish the rules for quarantine itself, it doesn't need the federal government for that.
More than 40,000 new infections in one day
Most recently, Kretschmann had repeatedly emphasized that the pandemic was not over yet.
The Green politician was annoyed that the traffic light federal government wants to phase out almost all corona protection measures.
He referred to the high incidences.
Most recently, there were almost 40,000 new infections in one day in the south-west, which corresponds to a 7-day incidence of over 1900. Because of the high number of unreported cases, the incidence in the south-west is likely to be significantly higher.
However, the intensive care units of the clinics are no longer as busy because the Covid disease in Omicron is usually milder than in the delta variant.
Counties want to avoid "data cemeteries".
Lucha had received support from the district council for his letter.
"It is important and necessary to confront Berlin politics with the technical realities on the ground," said President Joachim Walter.
"For example, it makes no sense to create data cemeteries by reporting thousands of positive test results to the Robert Koch Institute without drawing any consequences."
Vaccination offers will be severely curtailed for the time being
The vaccination offer is to be massively reduced at the end of next week due to a lack of demand.
Initially, from April 1, there will only be one mobile vaccination team and one base per city and district.
After the Greens and CDU parliamentary groups, the government also approved the proposal from the Ministry of Social Affairs.
So far there have been about 350 mobile teams and 135 vaccination centers funded by the state.
The coalition is convinced that the remaining structure will make it possible to react flexibly should the pandemic escalate dramatically.
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With the streamlined vaccination concept, the government wants to reduce the enormous costs.
The new concept is expected to cost almost 55 million euros by the end of September.
The money is to come from the reserve for budgetary risks.
Vaccination and testing cost the country several hundred million euros last year.
dpa