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Oh, how gladly one would have liked to hear such a statement after the conference of the Prime Ministers of the countries and the Chancellor on the current Corona situation.

When asked when the aid payments for retailers could finally be requested, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs replied on Wednesday lunchtime: “In the shortest possible time.” A few hours later it was time.

Applications were finally possible.

It would be the same with a return to the freedoms and rights of citizens.

But no, the lockdown will neither end in a very short time, nor will the country be able to return to a halfway normal mode.

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Rather, the decision of the federal and state governments says that initially almost everything remains as it is: closed, slowed down, distanced, masked and regulated.

This time Merkel gave up her resistance early

Although the number of infections has recently dropped significantly - as the decision paper also indicates - the lockdown will be extended until March 7th.

However, there will be one significant feature.

Read the full text of the decision paper here

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It was already apparent in the run-up to the meeting.

The federal states will reopen schools and daycare centers earlier, in some cases as early as February, for some classes.

Primary school students and the final classes are thought of.

The Saxon cabinet agreed on this on Tuesday.

Berlin, Hessen and others want to open primary schools on February 22nd.

Unlike in previous months, the Chancellor had given up her resistance to the school opening before the meeting on Wednesday.

This is a striking change.

Last year, it was Angela Merkel (CDU) who advocated school closings back in November, when the state chiefs flatly rejected this step.

Merkel presents results after conference with prime minister

Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the next steps in the corona pandemic with the 16 prime ministers.

Now she presents the results here.

Source: WORLD

It was she who emphasized in December that schools should not be closed shortly, but well before Christmas, in order to reduce the risk of students endangering their relatives as undetected virus carriers under the tree.

At the time, Merkel literally fought for a shutdown of the education sector.

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This time it was different.

A few days ago she signaled that schools should reopen soon.

Already in a first draft for the decision paper on Tuesday, which was written by a committee of four, to which also their Chancellery Minister Helge Braun (CDU) belongs, “openings in the care and education sector” were described as “priority”.

In a second version, which came out after the State Secretaries had consulted with the Chancellery Minister and which became known on Wednesday morning, there was an additional important sentence: “The federal states decide within the framework of their cultural sovereignty about the gradual return to face-to-face teaching and the expansion of child day care . ”And it stayed that way after the deliberations.

The change of course annoys a prime minister

Finally, in the virtual round, Merkel spoke out in favor of schools not being opened until March 1;

but at the baseline that the states decide this independently, this no longer changed anything.

“I had certain ideas of my own that were more towards an opening around March 1st.

But I also know that we live in a federal state.

It is simply not possible for me as Federal Chancellor to be able to assert myself as if I had a right of veto.

The countries will decide on their own responsibility. "

Merkel recommended that it be checked whether teachers and educators could not be vaccinated earlier.

The request will now be presented to the Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU), who will regulate the vaccination sequence in an ordinance, following the consent of the Prime Minister.

However, the regulation has only just been amended.

So far, teachers are in group three and should now move up to the second group.

Merkel's petition could actually have found Spahn on a shorter route.

After all, he is a member of her cabinet, which had met on Wednesday morning.

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The Chancellor's request for vaccination makes it very clear that she still sees schools and day-care centers as a starting point for a renewed infection process, a possible third wave.

Apparently she no longer wants to take political responsibility for the risks.

One of the prime ministers even noticed it unpleasantly.

Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) from Baden-Württemberg was "not happy about the change of course".

Even Kretschmann did not really want to be convinced when he would bring back which classes.

Now he can no longer refer to shared political responsibility if something goes wrong.

He is solely responsible for it - as do his colleagues.

For the regional leaders, this has the advantage that they can sell their citizens the school opening as the first step on an imaginary easing plan.

A second is the targeted opening of the hairdressers on March 1st.

The federal states wanted to end the uncontrolled growth on their heads a week earlier, but Merkel's proposal on March 1 finally found a majority.

And further?

This is where the noticeable loosening ends.

There is still no real easing plan, although the federal and state governments promised that three weeks ago.

He continues to wait for the formulation.

Only individual countries have now developed concrete step-by-step plans based on incidences.

Schleswig-Holstein's step-by-step plan for easing

Source: WORLD infographic

However, there is no consensus on such plans.

It could not be achieved on Wednesday either.

A perspective has been formulated for trade that is only expected to reopen at a stable incidence of 35 - the country is currently around 70 - but this is more of a project, not yet a plan set in stone.

It is not possible to predict when 35 will be reached.

With the current decline, the 50s incidence can come into view at the beginning of March.

Merkel indicated what “stable” means: “at least three days”.

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At the beginning of March, following consultations in a working group, the concrete steps are to be determined, also with regard to the areas of sport, culture and others.

The January resolution had already listed such a working group.

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Merkel spoke of a "style-forming" procedure that should be retained.

So the orientation of easing steps on concrete incidence values.

A clear sign against "No Covid"

The Chancellor's move not to block the school opening any more contains another message.

Merkel and the Chancellery in general have recently been said to have the greatest sympathy for the “No Covid” strategy.

Proponents of this strategy demand that radical contact bans should reduce the incidence to below ten new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week.

In the best case scenario, they want to eliminate the virus that way.

There are strategies of this kind in Australia or New Zealand - islands with strict entry bans.

The Chancellor does not belong to the “No Covid” group.

Because for them it is absolutely unacceptable to open schools and daycare centers soon.

The initiative rejects any loosening up to an incidence of less than ten.

Especially those who fear the virus mutation discovered in Great Britain expect it to spread especially in schools and daycare centers.

The concern is well-founded, as data from other countries suggest.

The importance of schools as places of infection is also shown by the fact that a significant decline in new infections began a few weeks after the school closed in mid-December.

Without the other Corona measures having changed significantly in the meantime.

It does not fit the assumption that the Chancellor is a “No Covid” supporter that she recently continued to use the incidence of 50 as a point of reference;

even the day before the meeting.

In the decision paper, another number appears next to it: precisely 35. This incidence already plays a role in the well-known hotspot strategy.

So it is not new.

Activating them again was a request from the Chancellery.

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But to assume that Merkel is arguing in the direction of the “No Covid” advocates is still wrong.

Because from the point of view of the “No Covid” followers, the discrepancy between the 10 and 35, and especially the 50 incidence, means a completely different strategy.

Mathematicians have calculated that with a predominance of the British variant, neither the incidence of 50 nor that of 35 can guarantee a stable low level of infection;

especially when society has reopened areas like schools.

Apart from the schools, only the hairdressers can hope for a new start in the foreseeable future.

The rest of society and business will have to wait even after these deliberations.

How long?

That remained open.

The next top round should reassess the situation.

The Chancellor assumes that the virus variant that is widespread in Great Britain will gain the upper hand in Germany from mid-March.

And then?

It depends on the next few weeks, Merkel told the Prime Minister.

How often have you heard this sentence?

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