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Düsseldorf (dpa) - The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Economic Affairs Andreas Pinkwart (FDP) is pushing for a reliable opening schedule for the economy.
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) must present a step-by-step plan to exit the lockdown by the end of next week, said Pinkwart on Friday in Düsseldorf.
Only then would he have a chance to influence the decision-making process of the federal and state governments.
The FDP politician emphasized, referring to the decisions of the conference of economics ministers, that the opening plans should not be based solely on the incidence value.
A traffic light system that also includes other indicators is necessary.
Pinkwart emphasized that the incidence value of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within a week was introduced around a year ago in order not to overburden the health authorities in tracking new cases.
At that time, however, there were only self-made fabric masks, no vaccinations and no rapid tests.
All of this has changed.
In addition, the health authorities have been upgraded.
The fact that the incidence value is still the only decisive factor therefore seems to him “not plausible”.
The possibly more contagious mutations did not change this assessment, said Pinkwart.
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The Minister of Economic Affairs pointed out that the current lockdown is causing enormous collateral damage in the German economy of up to 5 billion euros per week.
The economy can only recover quickly from the massive restrictions of the past few months if the lockdown is gradually lifted in the coming weeks.
In the first step, for example, car dealerships, furniture stores or hardware stores could be reopened, where customers were well distributed, said Pinkwart.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210219-99-508178 / 3