In Germany, the shock sentence of the Minister of Health on the Covid: “Vaccinated, cured or dead” – The HuffPost

Christian Mang via Reuters

COVID-19 – Across the Rhine, we do not go four ways. This Monday, November 22, the German Minister of Health warned that his compatriots will be “vaccinated, cured or dead” by the end of winter due to the current surge in Covid-19 infections in the country.

“Presumably at the end of winter, as it is sometimes said with cynicism, almost everyone will be vaccinated, cured or dead”, ruled the minister, once again calling on the Germans to be vaccinated “urgently” in the face of a explosion of coronavirus cases in recent weeks, which would be particularly linked to the “very, very contagious” variant Delta.

THE’Germany, especially the southern and eastern regions, is hit hard by a new wave of contaminations that experts and politicians attribute in particular to a vaccination rate (68%) among the lowest in Europe western.

Faced with this resurgence of the virus, the outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel and his probable successor Olaf Scholz decided last Thursday to tighten restrictions for the unvaccinated while excluding compulsory vaccination of the entire population.

As soon as the hospitalization threshold exceeds three Covid patients per 100,000 inhabitants, which is the case in twelve of the sixteen regional states of the country, the unvaccinated will be prohibited from entering public places. The authorities have also decided on a massive return to teleworking wherever possible and an obligation to have a health pass in transport and in the workplace.

In a disorganized band

However, the German federal system, which grants the Länder the power to legislate in particular in the fields of police and education, complicates the establishment of a rapid and unilateral response to the epidemic throughout the country.

For example, last Thursday, the minister-presidents of the regions failed to agree on the general closure of schools, Explain Release. The same goes for cultural venues, which may be open in one region but closed in another.

The issue of federalism is a sea serpent and was even invited into the campaign last spring. Armin Laschet, however considered the dolphin of Angela Merkel within the CDU, had thus stepped up to defend the Länder, facing the Chancellor who had threatened to take back control of the epidemic.

Mutti had ended, after bitter debates in the Assembly and the passing of a law, by imposing a simple curfew on all of Germany.

“Worse than anything we’ve known”

On Monday, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the current restrictions in Germany were “no longer sufficient” in the face of the “dramatic situation” caused by the surge in infections in Covid-19, according to sources within his party.

With the current evolution and daily records of infections, the health situation “will be worse than anything that we have known” so far, she also warned in front of the executives of her conservative party CDU , according to a source within the training interviewed by AFP.

In recent days, Germany has recorded numbers of infections unmatched since the start of the pandemic, surpassing the threshold of 65,000 in 24 hours last week. On Monday, the 7-day incidence rate was 386.5 per 100,000 population, a record in the country (against 171.5 in France).

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