Enlarge image
Helge Braun (archive image)
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
The corona situation in the country is currently worsening considerably.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has been reporting strong increases in the number of corona cases for days.
On Sunday, 33,498 new positive tests were reported, almost 10,000 more than a week ago.
The seven-day incidence rose to 289 (Saturday: 277.4) - a high in the pandemic.
One possible way to contain this escalation is through booster vaccinations. However, there are currently delays. According to the head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun, Germany is not yet sufficiently prepared for the necessary booster vaccinations. “By Christmas we have to have over 20 million booster vaccinations. We are not yet equipped for this, ”says the CDU politician on ZDF.
At the same time, he affirmed that compulsory vaccination for everyone is not the right way to go.
That only happens when it comes to eradicating a disease in general, such as measles.
Even compulsory vaccination for certain professions will not change the great corona wave.
But those who do not get vaccinated have to expect, like last winter, that there are restrictions so that the health system is not overloaded.
Klaus Reinhardt, President of the German Medical Association, pointed out serious failures in the booster vaccinations.
"We lost two to three months with the booster vaccinations," Reinhardt told the newspaper, "Welt".
"It was foreseeable that the booster vaccinations would represent a major logistical challenge for the general practitioners in addition to the influenza vaccination and the care for seasonal infections."
The low-threshold vaccination centers should have remained in part from the start.
"Pretending that it is a piece of cake to carry out all booster vaccinations exclusively in the doctor's office is definitely wrong." Most recently, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn had spoken out in favor of reactivating the vaccination centers in the federal states.
12,000 soldiers of the Bundeswehr are to help
Reminders from the weekend pointed out the drama of the situation.
"Every day of waiting costs human lives," it says in a call from 35 leading doctors and other experts published by the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" and editorial network Germany.
Green leader Robert Habeck spoke in the newspapers of the Funke media group of "extreme drama" of the situation.
The Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder announces stricter corona rules for the Free State in view of the dramatically increasing number of new infections and also calls for this nationwide.
"The situation threatens to slip away in the entire country," said the CSU chairman on Sunday in Munich.
One can assume "that Germany will become a problem child in the European Union."
According to information from SPIEGEL, 12,000 soldiers are to be deployed to support the overburdened clinics and health departments by Christmas.
jok / Reuters