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Corona rapid test in Saxony-Anhalt
Photo: Hendrik Schmidt / dpa
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Greens are pressing for longer receipt of unemployment benefit I in the corona crisis
5.15 a.m
.:
The Greens are urging to extend the special regulations for the extended receipt of unemployment benefit I in the corona crisis.
It is "absolutely incomprehensible" why the regulation should not continue to apply until the end of this year, said the Greens labor market expert Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn of the AFP news agency.
It is unfair that people whose entitlement to unemployment benefits is now expiring, unlike those who lost it by December 2020, should not get an extension.
The pandemic situation and the situation on the labor market have not fundamentally changed, said Strengmann-Kuhn.
"This misalignment has to be ironed out."
The Greens want to introduce a corresponding amendment in the course of the deliberations on Social Protection Package III, which will be voted on in the Bundestag on Friday.
In the course of the Corona relief measures, it was decided last year that ALG-I recipients, whose entitlement would end between May 1 and December 31, 2020, will receive the benefit three months longer.
The Greens now want to extend this by a year until December 2021.
The Social Protection Package III, which is to be voted on in the Bundestag, provides for easier access to the basic security systems and the simplified asset assessment for child allowance to be extended until December 31, 2021.
In addition, the special rules on the requirements for communal lunch in schools, daycare centers and workshops for disabled people will be extended until June 30, 2021.
Countries want to significantly expand vaccination capacities by April
4.20 a.m.:
With the arrival of more vaccines, the federal states expect significant progress in vaccinations against the
corona virus
by the beginning of April.
In several countries, vaccination capacities could be doubled by then, according to a survey by the dpa.
Bavaria, for example, recently reported a capacity of around 46,000 vaccinations per day.
In view of the announced delivery volumes, it is to be expanded to around 111,000 by April.
According to the federal states, significant increases up to doubling or even multiplying capacities are also possible in Bremen, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Saarland or Thuringia.
Many federal states cited a lack of vaccine quantities as the reason for the low occupancy rate of the vaccination centers so far.
On the other hand, there was sufficient staff.
Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) had recently urged the countries to speed up vaccination and said that there was now enough vaccine.
By the end of April, the three manufacturers Biontech, Moderna and Astrazeneca announced a total delivery volume of almost 19 million vaccine doses.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, 5.4 million vaccine doses had been injected up to and including Tuesday.
Broad study in Israel confirms high effectiveness of Biontech / Pfizer vaccine
3.30 a.m.:
A comprehensive study in Israel on the corona vaccine by Biontech / Pfizer has confirmed the very high effectiveness of the agent.
For the study published on Wednesday by the US journal "New England Journal of Medicine", the data from 1.2 million people were evaluated.
The result was that the vaccine was 94 percent protective against the symptoms of the disease.
Previous studies had already shown an effectiveness level of 95 percent of the agent from the Mainz company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer.
However, these investigations had only taken place under clinical conditions and with the participation of only several thousand test persons.
The current Israeli study looked at the effectiveness of the vaccine under the conditions of actual mass use.
The study took place between December 20 and February 1 - a period during which the particularly contagious British variant of the virus was already spreading in Israel, which makes the study all the more informative.
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Vaccination Center in Israel
Photo: Sebastian Scheiner / dpa
Of the 1.2 million people whose data were analyzed, half were vaccinated and half were not vaccinated.
Each vaccinated person was compared to a non-vaccinated person with the same or similar characteristics, including age, gender, geographical origin and health status.
The comparison showed an effectiveness of 57 percent of the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine against symptoms of disease from the coronavirus within a period of 14 to 20 days after administration of the first dose of vaccine.
The effectiveness grew to 94 percent seven days after the second vaccination.
According to the study, people who received the vaccine a second time also had a 92 percent lower risk of being infected with the coronavirus than those who were not vaccinated.
The effectiveness of the agent is about the same across all age groups, including people over 70 years of age, said Ben Reis, one of the study's co-authors, told the AFP news agency.
In Israel, around a third of the nine million people in the country have already been vaccinated with the recommended two doses of Biontech / Pfizer.
Another study, which has not yet been officially published, also showed that almost 90 percent of the drug prevented the transmission of the virus to other people.
Several media reported a few days ago about this study, which is based on the data of more than 1.7 million people who had been vaccinated.
200 employees from the Miele plant in Euskirchen in quarantine after the corona outbreak
02.15 a.m.:
After a coronavirus outbreak in a Miele factory in Euskirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, around 200 employees were quarantined.
By Wednesday afternoon, 14 employees had tested positive for the corona virus, as the electrical appliance manufacturer announced.
At least six of them are therefore infected with the British virus variant, which is particularly contagious.
After the first cases of infection became known, according to the company, all about 500 employees at the plant were tested for the corona virus on Tuesday.
All test results should be available by Thursday.
Production in the plant was stopped.
The approximately 200 employees, who were placed under domestic quarantine on the instructions of the health department, are all reportedly working in the production area.
Miele announced that no employee from other areas of the 110,000 square meter factory site had tested positive so far.
At the plant in Euskirchen, Miele produces drives for electrical appliances and cable drums for vacuum cleaners.
Tourism officer expects summer holidays abroad
1:40 a.m.:
The Federal Government's Tourism Commissioner, Thomas Bareiß, expects that despite the corona pandemic, summer holidays abroad will be relatively problem-free this year.
"I hope that most Germans will be vaccinated by the summer and will also be able to travel abroad," said the CDU member of the "Bild" newspaper.
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He sees no reason why, for example, one cannot travel to Mediterranean islands if the seven-day incidence value there is below 35.
Bareiß warned against making travel unnecessarily difficult.
"We can't keep people at home permanently."
In the Spanish Balearic Islands, the seven-day incidence value had dropped below 50 by the beginning of the week.
This means that less than 50 new infections were reported per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days.
The 50 mark is one of the criteria for classification as a risk area by the Robert Koch Institute.
On this basis, a travel warning from the German Foreign Office has been in effect for Spain with the Balearic Islands since mid-August last year.
In Germany, the seven-day value was just below 60 on Wednesday.
Austria's Chancellor calls for an EU-wide corona vaccination pass
1:20 a.m.:
Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has pleaded for an EU-wide corona vaccination certificate based on the Israeli model.
This certificate should be given digitally on the mobile phone, Kurz said on Wednesday evening in the Internet program of the "Bild" newspaper.
The vaccination certificate should, among other things, enable the return to freedom of travel in Europe.
Culture, sport and gastronomy "we can then ensure and guarantee".
In Israel, citizens who have received two doses of vaccine against the coronavirus can now get a "green passport".
This enables them, among other things, to visit gyms and theaters again and to stay in hotels.
The federal government was recently open to talks about an EU vaccination certificate and the associated facilitation of travel in Europe.
European Minister of State Michael Roth (SPD) said on Tuesday that vaccination certificates could not only be important for EU countries that are particularly dependent on tourism, but also "for us in Germany."
However, he named as a prerequisite that a "significant proportion" of the population should be vaccinated.
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Sebastian Kurz
Photo: Roland Schlager / dpa
The heads of state and government of the EU want to coordinate their further action in the corona pandemic in a video summit on Thursday and Friday.
According to a draft of the final declaration, which the AFP news agency received on Wednesday evening, the summit should warn against the lifting of restrictions in public life in view of the current spread of mutated coronaviruses.
However, Kurz announced that he wanted to continue his course of cautious openings in Austria.
He said on the Internet program "Bild live": "We are very much committed to the concept of tests." Around a quarter of the Austrian population is tested weekly.
Although this is "not a panacea", it will make it possible to slow down the increase in the number of infections and to take careful opening steps.
Spahn rejects criticism because of the slow approval of tests
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0.55 a.m.:
Federal Health
Minister
Jens Spahn has rejected criticism of the pace of the approval of corona self-tests in Germany.
The reliability of such tests must be carefully checked, said the CDU politician on Wednesday evening in the ZDF “heute journal”.
One shouldn't rely solely on the manufacturer's information and "lull people into a false sense of security".
"Too many incorrect results can have fatal consequences," said Spahn.
"For example, if you only had 90 percent correct result, that would mean quite a few false negatives over a million tests."
The first three self-tests have been approved by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices since Wednesday.
They should be available for free in pharmacies or drugstores shortly.
For these tests, specimens must be taken with a smear on the anterior nasal area.
In other countries they have been on the market for a long time.
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cop / dpa / AFP / Reuters