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Olaf Scholz: "We have to stick together and work together for the next days, weeks and months"
Photo: MAJA HITIJ / POOL / EPA
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Buschmann: A fine is conceivable if the general vaccination obligation is violated
6.35 a.m.:
The designated Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) assumes that the violation of a general obligation to vaccinate against the coronavirus, should the Bundestag decide soon, would be punished with a fine.
"If it came to a general compulsory vaccination, there would be a broad consensus among constitutional lawyers that it would not be permissible to force people to vaccinate," he tells the editorial network Germany.
"Presumably, a violation of the obligation to vaccinate would be treated like an administrative offense and a fine would be attached to it."
Linke suggests a minimum of 10,000 euros for returnees
6.30 a.m.:
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch proposes at least 10,000 euros per capita as a bonus for the return of former nurses in the corona crisis. Part of such an emergency program would have to be a “nationwide coordinated return campaign for ex-care workers” and a five-digit tax-free return bonus, which must also be paid out to the current care workers as a bonus. Bartsch told the newspapers of the Funke media group. During the pandemic, many nurses had turned their backs on their jobs due to excessive workload and other reasons. As a result, for example, there are currently fewer specialists available in intensive care units than there were a year ago.
The Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig (SPD), wants to pay the current nursing staff a tax-free bonus of 5000 euros, i.e. a maximum of half the amount proposed by Bartsch.
This would be a "clear signal," said Schwesig on Tuesday evening in the program "RTL direkt".
The future federal government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP had already set out tax breaks and a corona bonus for care workers in the coalition agreement.
The traffic light wants to make a billion available for the bonus.
Nursing staff with small children should be entitled to family-friendly working hours.
Experts consider 30 million vaccinations by Christmas to be ambitious
6.25 a.m.:
Experts consider the 30 million additional vaccinations targeted by the designated Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) by Christmas to be very ambitious. "This is logistically difficult to implement, since around 1.5 million vaccinations would have to be administered a day," said Thomas Schulz, head of the Institute for Virology at the Hannover Medical School, the editorial network Germany. For comparison: According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), around 532,000 vaccine doses were administered in Germany on Monday, 422,000 of which were booster vaccinations.
"I do not have the impression that the doctors are not getting the vaccine to the man, but rather that there are problems with distributing the vaccine," said Schulz.
The epidemiologist Hajo Zeeb, head of the Prevention and Evaluation department at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen, told the RND that he had doubts about the implementation of the goal because of a possible lack of vaccines, "but even a narrow failure would be something." .
A new crisis team headed by the Bundeswehr General Carsten Breuer is to help implement the 30 million goal.
Seven-day incidence falls for the second day in a row
6.15 a.m.:
The nationwide
seven-day incidence
has fallen again.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Wednesday morning at
442.9
.
A high of 452.4 had been reached on Monday.
On Tuesday the value was slightly below at 452.2.
A week ago the value was 404.5 (previous month: 118.0).
The health authorities in Germany also reported
67,186 new corona infections to
the RKI within one day
.
This is evident from the numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 3:55 a.m.
Exactly a week ago there were 66,884 infections.
According to the new information,
446 deaths were
recorded
across
Germany within 24 hours
.
A week ago there were 335 deaths.
The RKI has counted 5,903,999 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not recognized.
The RKI stated the number of people recovered on Wednesday at 4,937,600.
The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 101,790.
Scholz defends the vote on compulsory vaccination without a parliamentary group
00.05 a.m.:
Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz (SPD) has defended his view that there should be no parliamentary party compulsory in the vote on a general corona vaccination obligation in the Bundestag.
"That is good practice with such fundamental questions," said Scholz on Tuesday evening in the ARD.
“Almost every German has an opinion on this.
I think these are exactly the cases that need to be decided this way. "
Usually, political groups in parliament vote in unison.
However, there have also been deviations from this principle in the past, for example on issues such as euthanasia or organ donation.
Scholz himself wants to agree to a general compulsory vaccination and expects an introduction in February or March.
FDA advisors recommend approval for corona drugs
00:01 a.m.:
An advisory body to the US drug
agency
FDA has recommended emergency approval for a corona drug from the US pharmaceutical company Merck. After hours of discussion, the members of the committee voted in favor of this. The result of the vote is not binding for the FDA, but the authority usually follows the assessment of the consultant. Emergency approval from the FDA could now follow within a few days.
A few weeks ago, Merck announced that, according to a clinical study, the drug administered as a tablet significantly reduced the likelihood of very severe courses in high-risk patients. In the study, corona patients with mild to moderate symptoms who were treated with a placebo had to go to hospital in 14.1 percent of cases within 29 days or died. In the group of patients who were treated with the drug named molnupiravir, 7.3 percent were only about half as many.
The numbers are based on an evaluation of the data from 775 corona patients.
All subjects had at least one risk factor that makes a severe course likely.
In the test group that received the Merck drug, there were no deaths during the study period, the company said.
In contrast, eight people who received the placebo died.
hba / svs / dpa / AFP / Reuters
