The prime ministers of the federal states met again with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Monday to coordinate further measures in the corona pandemic. In the evening it was clear: basically everything should remain as it is, the measures against Corona should not be further tightened. Chancellor Scholz said after the conference: “It is important to stay on course, then we have a good chance.” These include, among other things, the strict contact restrictions that are already in force.
The expert council of the federal government expects a further increase in the number of cases in the next few days. In the draft resolution for the Prime Ministers’ Conference (MPK), it was said in advance that an incidence “of several thousand” could be achieved in some regions. On Monday, the nationwide incidence was 840. This means that statistically 840 people per 100,000 inhabitants have been infected with the corona virus in the past seven days.
The omicron variant of the corona virus is now also prevalent in Germany. It should bring milder disease progression than the previous Delta variant. Accordingly, the MPK paper previously spoke of the fact that the hospital burden of omicron cases is comparatively low. However, the experts are concerned because in Germany, compared to other countries, the proportion of unvaccinated people is particularly high among the elderly and people who are more susceptible to serious illnesses. The expert council, which advises the federal government, pointed out that the hospitalization rate for Omikron must be much lower than for the previous variants in order to compensate for the expected high number of cases.
The vaccination campaign should be intensified again, Scholz announced after the meeting. Posters, radio spots and social media will be used to advertise vaccination in the future. So far, about 75 percent of citizens are fully immunized. Not enough, experts say. Therefore, there should be a general obligation to vaccinate in Germany, which has not yet been described in detail, but without a legislative initiative by the federal government. On Wednesday, the Bundestag will deal with the topic in a debate lasting several hours.
At the federal-state summit in the Chancellery, the bottlenecks in the PCR tests were also discussed. The laboratories in Germany are already overloaded. The country heads therefore decided to prioritize. For example, PCR tests should “be focused on vulnerable groups and employees who care for and treat them”. The staff in clinics, in practices and in nursing were named. PCR tests should also continue to be used in high-risk patients.
How exactly this is regulated should be determined “promptly”, said a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) on Monday in Berlin. There will be a corresponding regulation for this. It is also still open as to when the prioritization should apply.
In view of the scarce resources for the PCR tests, the health ministers of the federal states had already spoken out in favor of the fact that a PCR test could be dispensed with in the future if the rapid test was positive and there were no symptoms at the same time. For this, however, paragraph 4b of the Corona Test Ordinance would have to be changed, which currently still grants a right to PCR re-testing in the case of positive rapid tests – including self-tests. Even if the Corona warning app shows a red tile, the state health ministers believe that a “high-quality” antigen test should be sufficient.
In addition, however, there are other questions, such as whether a PCR test restriction would also affect privately paid tests that are necessary for trips abroad, for example, or what effects a restriction would have on the subject of recovered status, because only someone who is officially recovered is considered to have recovered can prove with a positive PCR test that he has already had a corona infection.
The BMG spokesman defended the plans before the Prime Minister’s meeting. In an international comparison, Germany has very good laboratory equipment and test capacities are constantly being expanded, he said: “But with the expected number of cases, it will of course be the case that the resources are finite.” Critics, on the other hand, point out that in the Austrian capital of Vienna alone, as many PCR tests are carried out as in the entire Federal Republic of Germany. In Vienna, the construction of a corresponding infrastructure began as early as 2020. According to a spokesman for the city of Vienna, the costs for a PCR test are only slightly higher than for antigen tests. (with dpa)