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Corona test in Gütersloh
Photo: David Inderlied / dpa
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Australia is not expected to open borders to travelers in 2021
5 a.m.:
Australia is unlikely to open its borders to travelers this year.
As the Australian government's chief medical advisor, Brendan Murphy, told TV broadcaster ABC on Monday, free travel is unlikely in 2021 despite the early start of the coronavirus vaccination campaign.
"Even if we vaccinated a large part of the population, we don't know if it will prevent the virus from being transmitted," Murphy said.
He thinks it is "very likely" that the quarantine regulations will remain in force for a while.
Australia's borders have been closed to travelers since March 2020 to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The country has secured doses of the vaccines from Biontech and Pfizer as well as AstraZeneca, and the vaccination campaign is expected to start in late February.
Söder: Countries must implement corona resolutions more consistently
4:50 a.m.:
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder asked the other federal states before the federal-state consultations to implement jointly made resolutions to contain the corona pandemic more consistently.
"Half of the countries do something completely different," said the CSU boss on Sunday evening on the ARD talk show "Anne Will".
Therefore, the question arises again and again: "Why do we decide something where half do it differently?" Söder urged the consistent application and implementation of what is decided by the Prime Minister's Conference.
“I also don't believe in endless differentiations.
Because only what applies to everyone is understandable. "
Söder sees his own federal state well positioned in the fight against the pandemic and named as examples, among other things, the FFP2 mask requirement that will apply from Monday morning and the existing night curfews.
He believes that no more screws have to be turned.
When it comes to the number of new infections, Bavaria is in the top third in a country comparison.
Patient protectors for uniform corona protection for nursing homes
4.30 a.m.:
With a view to the corona consultations from the federal and state governments, patient
protectors are urging
nationwide uniform protective measures in elderly care.
"Just tightening the shutdown will not do much," said the board of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, of the dpa.
The 12,000 nursing homes would not have to be completely cordoned off in order to efficiently protect the high-risk group.
Brysch spoke of a "pandemic failure" in elderly care.
"The many infections lead to high death rates every day, especially among the 900,000 nursing home residents." Poor hygiene is also responsible for this.
The health authorities had largely stopped the important external controls during the pandemic.
There were no mandatory tests before each start of work and visit.
“The concept of continuing to care for infected patients in the facilities also failed.
But fewer and fewer home residents are cared for in the hospitals. "The average age of Covid 19 patients in the clinics is falling noticeably significantly.
Göring-Eckardt calls for corona rapid tests to be expanded
04.25 a.m.:
Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt calls for an initiative to expand corona rapid tests.
"With purchase guarantees and a change in the medical device dispensing regulation, Health Minister Spahn must ensure that sufficient rapid tests can be produced and also bought and used by private individuals," said Göring-Eckardt to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
According to Göring-Eckardt, regular rapid tests should ensure more safety in all professions in which people regularly work with changing contacts.
She cited doctors, nurses and police officers as examples.
With a view to the federal-state talks on Tuesday, the Green politician called for home office to be compulsory for all areas where it was possible.
“This is the only way to reduce mobility.
In addition, nobody then has to work in the open-plan office with insufficient protection.
That also protects those who cannot do their work from home. «It is completely incomprehensible to her why Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) is not finally acting.
Vice Chancellor Scholz expects a two-week lockdown extension
04.15 a.m.:
Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz expects the federal and state governments to tighten the corona restrictions during their deliberations on Tuesday and extend them by two weeks.
"Further measures must be taken," said the finance minister on Sunday evening in the "Bild" talk.
“I assume that it can be 14 days that will come again.” The Vice Chancellor did not want to rule out whether this also includes curfews: “I think this is a possible measure, but not the very first one pending."
Out of concern about the continued critical corona situation and a new, probably more contagious virus variant, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country leaders want to draw up an early interim balance on Tuesday.
Scholz, who is running for the SPD as the top candidate in the federal election, demanded that companies be more responsible for working from home, and that they could "not stay with appeals."
"We have to take this one step further." However, he did not want to speak of an obligation to work from home: It will always depend on "that this is also possible in operational terms.
We want to remain pragmatic and not ask for the impossible «.
In the debate about more freedom for vaccinated people, Scholz rejected the advance of his cabinet and party colleague Heiko Maas (SPD).
“Personally, I'm very reluctant.
I don't think that's up now, ”he said in the“ picture ”talk.
Foreign Minister Maas had called for people who had been vaccinated to visit restaurants or cinemas.
Virologist Addo expects significant relaxation "from spring"
02.50 a.m.:
The virologist Marylyn Addo expects the corona pandemic »from spring and summer to see significant relaxation.
"Already because of the warmer weather and the higher vaccination quota," said the head of the Infectious Diseases Section at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“But I can't imagine that we'll be able to toast it so soon in large crowds like at Oktoberfest.
There should be an increase again in the second half of the year, it's just a cold virus.
But I remain confident. "
In response to the discussion about the slow start of vaccination in Germany, she said: »I would like to see that we don't lose sight of the big picture.
If I had been told last February that we would have an argument in December about who would get the first vaccines, I would have thought it crazy - there would never be a vaccine that quickly.
But things turned out differently, and we should 'celebrate' what has been achieved. "
Brazilian authorities grant emergency approval to two corona vaccines
02.10 a.m.:
Brazil has approved two vaccines against the novel coronavirus and thus paved the way for a nationwide vaccination campaign.
A nurse in São Paulo was the first Brazilian woman to receive a first dose of vaccine on Sunday.
After the USA, Brazil is the country in the world hardest hit by the corona pandemic.
Brazil's regulatory agency Anvisa gave the green light to the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca’s vaccine on Sunday and allowed the use of the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac.
Both agents received emergency approval.
Shortly afterwards, nurse Monica Calazans was administered the CoronaVac vaccine in São Paulo as the country's first citizen.
The 54-year-old received the injection in the presence of the governor of the state of São Paulo, João Doria.
At the moment only CoronaVac, developed by the Chinese manufacturer Sinovac in collaboration with the Brazilian Butantan Institute, is available in Brazil.
Brazil's Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello announced that the vaccine would be delivered to all states from Monday.
The official start of the vaccination campaign is planned for Wednesday.
First of all, people over 75 years of age, healthcare workers and residents of old people's homes are to be vaccinated.
Pazuello criticized the vaccination on Sunday in São Paulo as a "marketing ploy".
Governor Doria is a rival of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
A dispute over the use of the CoronaVac vaccine had recently broken out between the two politicians.
Doria has already secured six million doses of the serum for his state.
Almost 210,000 people have already died after a corona infection in Brazil.
Worldwide only the USA has a higher number of victims.
Bolsonaro, who has been criticized for months because of his crisis management, has always downplayed the risk posed by the virus and recently repeatedly expressed doubts about vaccinations.
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