New Infection Protection Act agreed – Lauterbach sees Germany “very well prepared”
Created: 08/03/2022, 11:00 am
By: Anna Lorenz
According to Health Minister Lauterbach, a new infection protection law has been agreed in preparation for the Corona autumn in Germany.
Berlin – Autumn, Corona, Infection Protection Act – an increase in infections at the beginning of the cold season is considered likely.
Corresponding measures by the federal government to protect against infection were foreseeable.
According to Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), the new Infection Protection Act is now ready for the fall.
Corona: According to the Lauterbach Infection Protection Act agreed - waiting for details of the regulations
According to Lauterbach, the federal government has finished negotiating the new Infection Protection Act, which is intended to counteract a further wave of infections with the corona virus in autumn.
The current package of measures is only valid until September 23, 2022.
Details of the new regulations are not yet known, but, as he
told the newspapers of the
Funke media group , Lauterbach "considers the package [for] very good".
Germany is "prepared for the fall".
The new law protects “at the same time against being overburdened by too many Covid patients and a critical situation due to staff shortages,” said the minister.
"Difficult autumn": New Infection Protection Act is intended to avoid the wave of the BA.5 omicron variant
Although the details of the forthcoming regulations are only expected shortly, some cornerstones can be inferred from the political positions within the traffic light coalition.
As Lauterbach had already announced on
ARD
, they wanted to do without school closures.
“There should no longer be a general obligation to wear masks in schools,” said Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) in an interview with the
RND
.
"The mask requirement makes learning, language acquisition and togetherness more difficult."
The currently valid measures in the fight against the corona virus, which have been severely reduced under pressure from the FDP, will probably not be sufficient for the “very difficult” autumn according to Lauterbach.
Since the protection against infection with the omicron variant BA.5 is less than 40 percent, even for those who have been vaccinated four times, there is a risk of the critical infrastructure and hospitals being overloaded, the SPD politician told the newspapers of the
Funke media group
.
New Infection Protection Act: Combination solution and corona drug
One of the ways to react is to facilitate access to the corona drug Paxlovid.
"We want high-risk patients and people over 60 years of age to be treated with Paxlovid more quickly," Lauterbach continues.
The antiviral drug, which has been approved in the EU since January 2022, is "life-saving for the elderly [...] if it is used quickly." The fee will therefore be reorganized from next week.
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As part of the new regulations, access to the corona drug Paxlovid should also be made easier.
© Richard B. Levine/imago
In order to be able to better assess the pandemic situation, “a combination of incidence, referrals to the clinics and comprehensive wastewater tests” will be used in the future.
Depending on the situation, the new Infection Protection Act then has “many further measures” ready that the federal states and sometimes also the federal government could use.
(askl)
