While the war in Ukraine is raging, the Corona situation in Germany has receded into the background. Health Minister Lauterbach is now warning again of rising incidences and drawing attention to the growing number of deaths.
“We are in a situation that I would like to describe as critical.” Karl Lauterbach chose warning words at the press conference with RKI boss Lothar Wieler on Friday. The Federal Minister of Health emphasizes that the BA.2 subvariant is gaining in importance and that this is not only reflected in rising incidence values, but also in rising death rates.
Lauterbach said that 200 to 250 people are currently dying of the corona virus every day. “This is an intolerable situation.” For him, the situation is “critical” because it can be assumed that the number of deaths will continue to rise in the coming weeks.
It is therefore wrong to now throw all protective and precautionary measures overboard, said the SPD minister. Lauterbach called it a “misjudgment” to believe that the omicron variant only has milder courses. Unvaccinated people could die from it, and vaccinated people could also become seriously ill with the omicron variant and “develop long-term symptoms”. You have to react to that.
Lauterbach: “We absolutely need compulsory vaccination”
The new version of the Infection Protection Act therefore provides that further measures such as mask and test obligations can be taken in hotspots, said Lauterbach. Hotspots could well be large areas and not just individual cities or regions. Such protective regulations could then “affect an entire federal state”.
The new regulations of the Infection Protection Act are necessary because, according to the current legal situation, all protective measures would expire after March 19th. The new law is expected to be passed next week. Lauterbach called on the prime ministers and state parliaments not to linger on criticizing the law, but to prepare for its use. “We will have to implement this law very quickly,” said Lauterbach. He expects hotspots “in many federal states”.
The 59-year-old once again formulated the demand for general vaccination. “We absolutely need compulsory vaccination,” he said. The arguments against it are scientifically wrong. Without them, you won’t get the pandemic under control in the fall. “In the autumn we will be faced with exactly the same situation as now. If not worse,” said the minister.
Source: Stern
