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Berlin / Aachen (dpa) - In the middle of the third corona wave, calls for tightening the pandemic restrictions in April are getting louder.

The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet called for a "bridge lockdown" on Monday, with which the time should be bridged until many people were vaccinated.

The situation requires “that we step up again in many areas,” said the CDU federal chairman after a visit to the vaccination center in the Aachen city region.

In his assessment of the situation, he agreed with many Prime Ministers, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Health Minister Jens Spahn (both CDU).

Spahn had previously raised hopes over the Easter weekend that those who had been completely vaccinated after the third wave of infections, as well as those who tested negative, could regain freedom when shopping and traveling more quickly.

The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care treatment exceeded the 4,000 mark for the first time in two months.

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In Aachen, Laschet spoke out in favor of bringing the Chancellor's round with the Prime Ministers of the federal states planned for April 12 forward to the next few days.

More speed and clear decisions are now necessary.

The prime ministerial conference with Merkel must meet in attendance this week.

«We must not experience another prime ministerial conference like we did last time.

With hours of discussion, with hours of time out. "

Less private contacts are needed, said Laschet with a view to his demand for a “bridge lockdown”.

This could also mean exit restrictions in the evening and night.

These are an effective means of reducing contacts in private spaces.

In addition, one has to focus on what is necessary in daycare centers and schools - while at the same time ensuring that they are covered by comprehensive and closely-timed tests.

More must also be done in the home office area.

"There are still far too many people on the move to work," said Laschet.

In the two to three weeks of the lockdown, the home office offensive of the economy must move forward again.

To this end, the federal government will speak to the trade associations again this week about testing.

In addition, the catering had to be closed, and there had to be a further reduction in the entire leisure area.

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Spahn affirmed on Monday in Berlin that vaccinated people should get back more freedom when shopping and traveling.

In the "Bild am Sonntag" he had previously referred to an evaluation of the latest findings by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI): According to this, the risk of transmission two weeks after the second vaccination is probably even lower than after a negative rapid test of asymptomatic infected people.

Spahn emphasized that corona rules such as distance, hygiene and protective masks would continue to apply to fully vaccinated people in the current pandemic phase.

The number of corona patients in intensive care treatment exceeded the 4000 mark for the first time in two months over Easter.On Monday, there were 4144 corona cases in the intensive care unit, such as the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) in their daily routine Corona report wrote (as of April 5th, 12.15 p.m.).

That is 93 patients more than the day before and over 500 more than a week ago.

At the beginning of January, the number of Covid intensive care patients had reached a peak with more than 5500 cases.

To what extent the infection situation has changed over Easter is currently difficult to assess.

The Robert Koch Institute pointed out that in many places fewer tests are usually carried out and reported around the Easter holidays.

In addition, it could be that not all health authorities and responsible state authorities transmit to the RKI every day.

The reported number of cases is therefore likely to be lower and only have limited informative value.

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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210405-99-91372 / 2

DIVI daily report from 5.4.

RKI dashboard