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Intensive care nurse in protective equipment with a corona patient in the intensive care unit of the Bethel Berlin hospital
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
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Left-wing faction in the EU Parliament calls for a committee of inquiry into vaccination strategy
Before the debate in the European Parliament on the EU vaccination strategy, the group of the European Left called for a committee of inquiry on the subject.
The parliamentary group will encourage the establishment of a committee in the debate on Wednesday, said Martin Schirdewan, the co-group leader of the Left in the European Parliament, the »Süddeutsche Zeitung«.
"With such a committee, Parliament can exercise its control function vis-à-vis the Commission more forcefully."
In Schirdewan's opinion, the committee should be given access to all procurement contracts and should be able to question all parties involved.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defends her authority's strategy for the procurement of corona vaccine in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
The commission is facing massive criticism because of production problems of the vaccine manufacturers and delivery delays.
Von der Leyen had recently admitted that he had underestimated the problem of the mass production of newly developed means and possibly aroused excessive expectations.
Brewers have to dispose of unmarketable draft beer
5:00 a.m.:
Due to the lockdown, which has already been extended several times, unsalable draft beer is becoming an ever greater problem for the German brewing industry.
"The breweries have to dump millions in the gully," said the managing director of the German Brewers' Association, Holger Eichele.
Regional companies in particular, which are heavily dependent on the catering and festival business, have to destroy beer on a large scale, as does the beverage trade.
The reason for this is the best-before date, which is being reached in more and more cases.
The total amount of destroyed beer cannot be estimated.
"Not all of the beer that was returned so far had to be destroyed, and not all of the beer that was not drunk was also brewed," said Eichele.
CDU politician: MPs as "hardship managers" for Corona aid
3 a.m.:
The CDU economic
politician
Christian von Stetten
has made an unusual proposal so that corona aid can be paid out to companies more quickly.
The federal government must recognize constituency members as "hardship managers," he told the German press agency.
The reason for this are reasonable amounts in advance payments for November and December aid for companies in lockdown.
Von Stetten is chairman of the middle class parliamentary group of the Union parliamentary group.
"I'm not prepared to watch dozens of hotels, restaurants or leisure businesses in my constituency get into financial difficulties just because the state is not in a position to make individual decisions about appropriate amounts of advance payments," said von Stetten.
He is a directly elected MP in the Schwäbisch Hall-Hohenlohe constituency in Baden-Württemberg.
City council calls for extension of the lockdown
02.15 a.m.:
The German Association of Cities has spoken out in favor of extending the existing lockdown.
“We mustn't risk another lockdown just because we long for normalcy and are now loosening the measures too quickly.
There is probably no way around extending the restrictions, ”said City Council President Burkhard Jung of the“ Rheinische Post ”.
"It is still too uncertain how the mutations in the coronavirus will spread and what can stop them."
One ray of hope, however, is that the downward trend in new infections is currently stabilizing.
»This creates scope for showing initial perspectives.
Daycare centers and schools have to come first.
Everyone else has to get in line, ”said Jung.
Giffey: Use of rapid tests must be prepared =
1:45 a.m.:
Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey calls for preparations for the massive use of rapid
tests
in schools.
"Rapid tests are a huge opportunity for opening strategies," said the SPD politician in an interview with the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".
»Rapid tests for use by non-medical personnel with training videos have been approved since February 2nd.
They are already being used in Potsdam and Bremen, Berlin has ordered such tests, and Austria is also showing the way. "
The approval of several easy-to-use rapid tests for self-application by laypeople is in preparation and is expected in the next few weeks.
As soon as a city, a district or a region can guarantee the rapid testing of the staff and further hygiene and precautionary measures and the incidence is low, "daycare centers and schools can gradually reopen," said Giffey.
"My appeal to the federal states is: The widespread use of these rapid tests must now be prepared so that they can be used immediately when they are approved and available." And further: "The federal states should really do everything in motion here."
Elton John and Michael Caine call for corona vaccinations with a clip
1.30 a.m.:
With a film clip, music star
Elton John
(73) and actor
Michael Caine
(87)
call on
people in Great Britain to take part in the corona vaccination.
In a 90-second film, Sir Elton applies for a role in an advertisement for the vaccination.
"The more people get vaccinated, the greater the chances that the national Covid pandemic will be stopped," he says with a serious look at the camera.
"It is really important to know that the vaccines have all passed the necessary safety and quality standards." Then he pretends to have received a vaccination and begins with his hit "I'm still standing".
Report: North Rhine-Westphalia allows seven instead of six vaccinations per Biontech ampoule
1:24 p.m.:
In North Rhine-Westphalia, according to a media report, seven instead of six vaccine doses can now be drawn from an ampoule from the manufacturers Biontech and Pfizer.
The adjustment applies, however, with restrictions, reported the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" in its Wednesday edition, citing the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Health.
Accordingly, the vaccine from different ampoules must not be mixed.
In addition, the seventh dose should only be used if at least 0.3 milliliters of the vaccine are left in the respective ampoule, according to the report.
The Ministry of Health justified the step by stating that the ampoules were "regularly overfilled for technical reasons".
With careful handling it is possible to win a seventh ampoule.
At the beginning of the year, the EU Medicines Agency (EMA) allowed six and no longer just five doses to be used per ampoule of the vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer.
As a result, the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that it would deliver fewer ampoules to the ordering countries, since the orders "were always based on a total number of doses and not of ampoules."
Left-wing politicians call for priority vaccination for school and daycare staff
1:00 a.m.:
The chairman of the children's commission in the Bundestag, Norbert Müller, has called for a clear political concept to enable people to return to daycare and school.
Such a strategy must include "mandatory tests and previous vaccinations for the staff in all educational and community facilities for children," the left-wing politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
An educational strategy is needed in the Corona crisis that consists of more than distance teaching and waiting for falling incidence numbers, said Müller in the run-up to the federal-state consultations this Wednesday.
Intensive care physicians warn: No face-to-face classes until the beginning of March
12:01 a.m.:
Intensive care
physicians
have warned against opening schools and daycare centers before the beginning of March.
"We see the danger that a third wave will build up unnoticed by the mutations," said the President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), Gernot Marx, the editorial network Germany.
“We have to continue the lockdown to the extent it is now at least until the beginning of March.
Classroom teaching at schools should also be suspended until then and daycare centers should remain closed. "
That is an incredible burden for children and parents, said Marx.
"Schools and daycare centers, however, contribute to the spread of the virus to a large extent, which is exacerbated by the mutations."
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oka / AFP / dpa / Reuters