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People stand in front of a test center in Cologne
Photo: Roberto Pfeil / dpa
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Lower Saxony's Interior Minister: Consistently intervene in
Corona
demos
3:17 a.m .:
Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Boris Pistorius has announced that the state will take consistent action against rule violations and violence during protests against the corona policy. “Anyone who resists police action or tries to break through a police line with reckless force or even with a child in front of their stomach makes it clear that aggression and an attack on the state are at stake. And we, representing the vast majority of citizens, will not put up with that,” said the SPD politician to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.
»There is talk of a dictatorship and fascists, there is talk of violence and conspiracies.
And this shows that many of those who take to the streets are not actually concerned with the corona measures, but rather with contempt and denigration of the state and democracy," emphasized Pistorius.
Here the "well-fortified constitutional state" will be very careful and intervene wherever necessary.
Britain plans to lift home isolation requirements
2:14 a.m .:
According to a newspaper, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to lift the legal requirement for domestic isolation after an infection.
The plans should be worked out over the coming weeks, reports The Telegraph newspaper.
The recommendations for quarantine should remain within your own four walls.
However, disregard will no longer result in fines or other penalties.
Oxfam:
Corona
pandemic exacerbates social inequalities
1:56 a.m .:
From the point of view of the Oxfam organization, the corona pandemic has exacerbated social inequalities.
While the wealth of the top 10 billionaires has doubled, more than 160 million people live in poverty, according to a report released by Oxfam just ahead of a digital World Economic Forum conference.
In Germany, too, the concentration of wealth has continued to increase.
Oxfam called on governments around the world to tax corporations and the super-rich more heavily to fund basic social services, ensure global immunization justice and align the economy with the common good.
Over three billion people have now been double-vaccinated against Covid-19, but only around nine percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose, according to Oxfam: “Millions of people who could have been saved are on because of the unfair vaccine distribution died of the pandemic and its consequences.« The vaccines should be treated as a public good, also because governments have promoted their development with a lot of tax money.
Survey: CEOs optimistic despite the pandemic
1.30
a.m .: Despite the ongoing corona pandemic, the heads of companies around the world are looking to the economy with confidence.
This emerges from the survey published on Monday by the auditing and consulting firm PwC.
Accordingly, 77 percent of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) expect global economic growth to improve over the next twelve months.
According to PwC, this is a record high.
Only 15 percent believe in a decline.
In a global comparison, German company managers are similarly optimistic: 76 percent of managers in Germany expect global economic growth to increase (previous year: 80 percent).
Almost 4,500 corporate executives from 89 countries took part in the study, which was conducted in October and November 2021.
Virologist Stöhr: First the epidemic, then a very relaxed summer
1:07 a.m .:
In view of the current corona wave with the highly contagious omicron variant, virologist Klaus Stöhr first expects an epidemic in the coming weeks, then natural immunization of the population – and finally the pandemic will end.
“In the next two to three weeks there will be uncertainty as to how high the incidence will rise.
After that, a lot of people will get natural immunity due to the very strong epidemic that will unfortunately set in then, which cannot be averted,” he said on Sunday evening on the TV station Bild.
This immunity is "planted on top" of immunization through vaccination, Stohr continued.
Both together will lead to a lasting immune protection, so that you don't have to boost the fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh time.
In the fall you have to see whether you can make the over 60-year-olds again a vaccination offer.
In view of the millions of unvaccinated or at least not fully vaccinated people, caution is still very important, according to Stöhr.
Nevertheless, he is convinced: »In the spring and summer it will be very relaxed.«
Obligation to vaccinate: Unvaccinated employees in medical practices are threatened with dismissal
12:50 a.m .:
Employees in general practices who cannot provide proof of vaccination or recovery after the compulsory corona vaccination has come into force must expect a warning and, ultimately, their dismissal.
This emerges from an information sheet from the German Association of General Practitioners, about which the editorial network Germany (RND) reported first.
The so-called facility-related vaccination requirement stipulates that employees in facilities such as medical practices, clinics and nursing homes must prove by March 15 that they have been vaccinated or have recovered.
This is intended to better protect patients and those in need of care from corona infection.
more on the subject
Fighting pandemics: This is the status of the dispute over compulsory vaccination by Jean-Pierre Ziegler and Dietmar Hipp
A constitutional lawyer explains: Seven questions about compulsory vaccination - and seven answers A video by Dennis Deuermeier, Andreas Evelt and Jonathan Miske
If employees refuse to provide proof, the health department can prohibit them from entering the doctor's office or working in it, according to the information sheet on the website of the General Practitioners' Association.
"In these cases, the affected employees will generally no longer be entitled to remuneration."
If the employee refuses to submit proof of vaccination or recovery or a certificate that vaccination is not indicated for medical reasons, termination can also be considered as a last resort, the association explains.
"According to the principle of proportionality, however, a warning should usually be given first."
»Omikron changes the rules of the game«
12:05 a.m .:
The FDP politician Stephan Thomae has confirmed his doubts about a general corona vaccination requirement. "Omicron is changing the rules of the game," said the parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". “Now is not the time to just do anything and decide on the toughest possible measures just to show willingness to act. It's about doing the right thing at the right time.«
Thomae is thus reacting to statements by the virologist Christian Drosten, who sees the highly contagious, but probably milder course of the disease, omicron variant as an “opportunity” to move from the pandemic to the endemic state. The prerequisite, however, is broad immunity, Drosten told the “Tagesspiegel”. "The virus has to spread, but on the basis of vaccination protection that is anchored in the general population" - otherwise too many people would die.
Thomae demanded that the compulsory vaccination discussion must be conducted calmly and taking into account the latest scientific findings: "Before we vaccinate in the summer season with a vaccine whose effect may wear off again in the next winter season and/or be undermined by a new variant , we should ask ourselves whether it makes sense to wait and see which mutation we will be dealing with next fall.«
Corona
vaccination for over 60-year-olds in force in Greece
12:01 a.m .:
Unvaccinated Greeks over 60 will be asked to pay from now on: Anyone who still does not have the corona vaccination administered will be fined 50 euros in January, and from February it will be 100 euros a month.
Read the full announcement here.
cop/AFP/dpa/Reuters
