display

Berlin (dpa) - North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) calls for new concepts in the corona pandemic from January.

"Society and the economy cannot survive another year like this," Laschet told the Rheinische Post.

From the turn of the year, “smart concepts should enable long-term prospects for living with the pandemic,” he said.

"With the approval of the vaccine, these concepts are realistic."

Laschet went on to say: “We cannot shut everything down forever, and the state pays billions in outages month after month.

A new model will be necessary from the new year.

Permanent closings and subsequent compensation payments destroy the state in the long run. "

display

Meanwhile, Chancellery Minister Helge Braun is optimistic about the coming year in the Corona crisis.

"The pandemic will lose its horror next year," said the CDU politician to the "Handelsblatt".

“As a society, we have to stick to December and the months up to March by observing the AHA rules and reducing our contacts.

Where that is not enough, cuts are inevitable.

Then spring will come and hopefully the vaccine too. "

It has been possible to stop the exponential growth in the number of infections at a level that challenges the health system, but does not just overwhelm it.

But 400 deaths a day are too many.

"That is why I would have liked to have passed more far-reaching resolutions in October."

At the weekend at the beginning of Advent, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also encouraged the population.

The advances in medical research give hope that the virus will not permanently dominate everyday life, wrote the head of state in a guest post for "Bild am Sonntag".

display

The President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, spoke out in favor of using more corona rapid tests than before.

Priority should be given to health care facilities such as retirement homes or hospitals.

"Later it is conceivable to carry out rapid tests before larger events, when these are allowed again," he told the "Mannheimer Morgen".

Reinhardt does not see the risk of an explosive increase in the number of corona infections over the Christmas holidays.

"I think it is unlikely that Christmas will become a nationwide superspreading event."

If people adhere to the infection protection regulations, the temporary relaxation is justifiable and even advisable for psychosocial reasons.

The virologist Alexander Kekulé suggested a private corona reporting system for events from 20 people.

"All organizers, including private ones, should be obliged to register the participants," he told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Monday).

If a participant is positive, the organizer can warn everyone else.

“This would allow a parallel reporting system to be implemented that is much, much faster on a private level and that would be more willing to participate,” said Kekulé.

display

With a view to Christmas, Kekulé said there was “the serious special risk that many people who are over 70 years old will become infected.

And if they become infected, they have a risk of death of almost ten percent.

But I think we can control this risk ».

The measures decided by the federal and state governments last week included the possibility that the number of infections would have dropped significantly by Christmas.

«Politicians are betting on falling numbers.

If things turn out very differently, the Prime Ministers and the Chancellor have a communication problem. "

According to Kekulé, he expects vaccination of the healthy general population in the period from April to June.

“The epidemic could then disappear in summer and hopefully not come back in autumn.

That is my optimistic scenario. "

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201130-99-511593 / 2