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Rapid test center in Magdeburg
Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / dpa
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Medical Association: FFP2 mask requirement for nursing home visitors
04.45 a.m.:
The Marburger Bund doctors' association calls for further corona protective measures for old people's and nursing homes.
The chairwoman Susanne Johna told the dpar: "If it is not yet the case, visitors should only be allowed in with a negative test result and with an FFP-2 mask." as sometimes happens by members of the armed forces.
However, this cannot be done quickly in every facility.
Therefore one should create alternative test possibilities for visitors.
"For example, rapid tests could be carried out separately at each vaccination center," suggested Johna.
»Especially on weekends, when many people want to visit their elderly relatives in the homes, they need uncomplicated access to rapid tests for the coronavirus.
In any case, the nursing staff in the homes cannot do that. "With a view to the resolutions of the federal and state governments, the head of the association said:" We recognize the effort to improve the situation.
But the measures that have now been agreed to protect the residents of old people's and nursing homes are not enough. "
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the Prime Ministers agreed on Tuesday evening that FFP2 masks are required for staff when they come into contact with residents.
The institutions are responsible for the comprehensive implementation of rapid tests when entering the homes.
Because of the lack of personnel, soldiers and later trained volunteers should be deployed.
The Federal Employment Agency should also help with the placement.
Where can I get safe medical masks now?
4.40 a.m.:
In the future, medical masks will be mandatory on public transport and in shops.
Where can I buy FFP2 and surgical masks?
And how do you protect yourself against counterfeiting?
Here at a glance.
The federal and state governments extend tax relief for companies
4.30 a.m.: The
federal and state governments are extending tax relief for companies due to the ongoing corona pandemic.
The special advance payment for sales tax can therefore also be suspended for 2021 if the respective company is severely affected by the crisis.
The dpa learned this from government circles.
The extension is a clear sign to support companies and their liquidity, it said.
An entrepreneur must make the advance payment as a kind of deposit if he wants to submit his advance VAT returns later than required.
Since the deadline for these pre-notifications is very short, many companies make use of the regulation.
The special advance payment had already been suspended last year due to the crisis.
Why there are so many vaccine opponents in Germany
03.15 a.m.:
Reservations about vaccinations are greater in Europe than in Africa.
Why is that and what follows from it?
The anthropologist Heidi Larson explains what a population's willingness to vaccinate depends on.
Read more here.
Heil demands massive home office use and announces controls
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Hubertus Heil
Photo: Felix Zahn / photothek.net / imago images / photothek
02.50 a.m.:
After the federal-state talks, Federal Labor
Minister
Hubertus Heil (SPD) asked employees and companies to make massive use of the new home office options.
At the same time, he warned employers in "Bild live" on Tuesday evening against arbitrarily canceling the option to work from home and announced controls.
“You have to say clearly where it works - and also where it doesn't.
Wherever possible, they should make it possible, and in case of doubt, this is also checked by the occupational safety and health authorities. «The government expects the employees to use the home office in the fight against the corona pandemic.
After several hours of negotiations, the federal and state governments agreed on Tuesday that employers must enable their employees to work from home wherever the activities allow.
This is intended to reduce contacts at work, but also on the way to work.
A corresponding draft ordinance for healing - limited until March 15 - is already available.
Corona summit: class struggle in the Chancellery
02.35 a.m.:
Merkel's Corona switch with the country chiefs came to the marathon meeting - the topic of school divided the group.
One participant particularly got the chancellor's frustration.
Reconstruction of a memorable day.
Read more here.
Municipalities hardly accept help from the Bundeswehr with rapid tests in homes
02.25 a.m.:
According to a report, the municipalities are only hesitant to accept the offer to request soldiers from the Bundeswehr for corona rapid tests in old people's and nursing homes.
So far, only 219 soldiers have been deployed in six counties, reported the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The number of such requests for administrative assistance fell from 18 to 13 after differences between the German Association of Cities and the federal government became public.
Both sides are therefore arguing about liability and qualifications of the test personnel.
According to the Association of Cities, it is not clear who is liable for incorrectly carried out tests and the resulting false negative results.
It is also unclear whether rapid training by the Red Cross will be sufficient and whether the volunteers would need a police clearance certificate to work in the estimated more than 15,000 old people's and nursing homes across Germany.
Doctors are demanding more capacity for intensive care units
02.15 a.m.:
The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) calls for a rapid reduction in the number of infections in order to relieve the capacities of the intensive care units.
»We currently have just under 5000 intensive care patients in Germany - we have to go down significantly.
It is also about being ready for reception again if the virus mutation spreads in Germany despite all the measures and leads to more infections and thus more intensive care patients, "says DIVI President Gernot Marx of the" Rheinische Post ".
Biden commemorating corona deaths: "In order to heal, we have to remember"
2:05 a.m.:
The evening before their swearing-in, the future US President Joe Biden and the upcoming Vice President Kamala Harris remembered the hundreds of thousands of corona deaths in the country with a memorial ceremony.
"In order to heal, we have to remember," said Biden on Tuesday evening (local time) at the brief ceremony in the US capital Washington.
"It's important to do that as a nation."
Harris said Americans mourned alone for many months.
That evening the nation mourned together.
She hopes that the country will emerge from the crisis with the knowledge that it will appreciate the simple moments more and open up to one another.
Biden and Harris are due to be sworn in in Washington on Wednesday afternoon.
For the ceremony, which the couple attended with their spouses, 400 lights lit the pool of water in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
Lights were turned on on buildings across the country at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the top of the Empire State Building in New York pulsed like a heart in red. Church bells were ringing, and citizens were also called to light a candle.
On Tuesday, the United States passed another gloomy milestone in the corona crisis: More than 400,000 people have died there since the beginning of the pandemic after being infected with the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen.
That comes from new data from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
WHO warns of the collapse of clinics in America
1:50 a.m.:
In view of the increasing number of corona infections, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns of a collapse of hospitals in North and South America.
"Across the region, many clinics work at or near the limit of their capacity," said the director of the Pan-American Health Organization (Paho), Clarissa Etienne.
She was particularly concerned about the high number of beds in intensive care units and the lack of medical oxygen in certain regions.
»In the past week we registered over 2.5 million new Covid-19 cases in the region - more than half of all cases worldwide.
In the same period, 42,000 people in North and South America lost their lives because of the pandemic, "said Etienne.
With the USA, Brazil and Mexico, three of the worst affected countries are in the region.
“Our region and the world are failing in an attempt to control the coronavirus.
In too many countries the political measures do not match the seriousness of the situation, ”said Etienne.
"And too many of us have relaxed the measures that we know will work, that have kept us healthy and the clinics up and running." Paho is the WHO regional organization in North and South America.
Merkel on Corona resolutions: "It's hard what we have to expect people to do again"
1:10 a.m.:
Chancellor and country leaders struggled for hours to extend the corona measures.
See Merkel's explanation of the new resolutions in the video here.
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