Coronavirus in Germany: Lower Saxony expands voluntary 2-G

Lower Saxony is introducing a voluntary 2-G option for many other industries.

As Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) announced on Tuesday in the state parliament in Hanover, in the future, for example, restaurateurs and businesses in areas such as culture and sport will only be allowed to admit those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered at their own request.

Visitors who only present a negative corona test would have to stay outside.

In return, the mask and distance requirements are suspended.

Weil spoke of a "preventive measure" that restaurateurs and event organizers could introduce.

The government wants to specify the details in a new corona ordinance that is currently being drawn up.

Because: Good success with the previous 2-G rule

Discos and clubs in Lower Saxony are allowed to open voluntarily according to the 2-G model, guests are then exempt from the mask requirement.

The regulation shows "consistently good success," said Weil in the state parliament.

It should be expanded.

The expansion of the 2-G rule is a contribution to normalizing public life in Lower Saxony, said the Prime Minister in his government statement.

Fully vaccinated citizens would have the right to be able to lead “their old life” again “without restriction”.

Adults who decided against vaccination, on the other hand, would have to “answer for the consequences of their decision”.

If the corona situation worsens again in the future, as expected by experts, the unvaccinated will have a "difficult autumn and winter", added Weil.

His government will prevent the overloading of clinics and the uncontrolled spread of infection with “all determination”.

The vaccinated would then, however, be spared restrictions because they no longer pose any significant danger.

The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) across Germany on Tuesday as 1.86 (Monday: 1.79).

A weekly or monthly comparison is not possible due to the high number of late registrations.

A nationwide threshold value from when the situation can be viewed critically is not provided for the incidence of hospitalization, among other things because of large regional differences.

The previous high was around 15.5 around Christmas time.

In Lower Saxony, a corona warning level concept generally applies, from which protective measures and requirements are derived.

In addition to the so-called seven-day incidence, the number of new hospital admissions and the proportion of corona patients in intensive care units have been taken into account as key indicators since August.

Many regions in Lower Saxony are currently in level one.

The 3G model is therefore mandatory for many services and events.

Simultaneous vaccination against corona and flu is harmless

The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO), Thomas Mertens, commented on Tuesday about simultaneous vaccinations against the flu and the corona virus.

These are harmless, he told MDR Aktuell.

There is no evidence that either of the two vaccines will no longer work.

The pulling apart of the two vaccinations is therefore no longer necessary as a precautionary measure.

Mertens campaigned for people from risk groups to be vaccinated against the flu.

If there are fewer protective measures against the corona virus this year, such as wearing a mask and keeping your distance, people are particularly at risk.

The Stiko boss also responded to fears that the flu vaccine could offer less protection this year because fewer people were infected with flu and data could be missing in the past season. He thinks this fear is unfounded, said Mertens. Laboratories around the world studied influenza viruses year round. That is the basis for the composition of the vaccines.

Previously, the chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners, Ulrich Weigeldt, called for more public support for flu vaccinations. The influenza vaccination should not be forgotten in the second Corona autumn, he told the newspaper Rheinische Post. It also makes a decisive contribution to protecting the population and relieving the burden on the health system. It was desirable that the corona and influenza vaccinations could be administered at the same time as possible, said the general practitioner boss.

Weigeldt also criticized the limited view of corona warning values. “I am surprised by the ongoing focus on daily updated incidence or hospitalization figures. Hardly any doctor's practice would rebalance decisions based on the vaccination rate or incidence value every day - also because they are unfortunately still very imprecise and say little about the individual situation on site. "

According to the RKI, the seven-day incidence of new corona infections was 81.1 across Germany on Tuesday morning.

For comparison: the previous day the value was 81.9, a week ago it was 83.8.

The health authorities in Germany reported 6,325 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.

This is evident from the numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 4:06 a.m.

A week ago the value was 6726 infections.

According to the new information, 68 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.

A week ago there were 59 deaths.

The RKI has counted 4,089,476 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 detected.

The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered at 3,841,800. The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 92,686.