Concerns about the delta variant: Merkel: Must come towards 80 percent with the vaccination quota

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Health Minister Jens Spahn (both CDU) have pointed out the importance of vaccinations in view of the rapidly spreading, more aggressive delta variant of the corona virus. According to information from the German Press Agency from participants in the last regular deliberations of the CDU leadership before the summer break in Berlin, Merkel said that the vaccination quota should be 80 percent. Unvaccinated children in particular would still be vulnerable in the fall. At the same time, she pointed out that hospitalization in the Delta variant is not so high in other countries.

According to the Robert Koch Institute and the Ministry of Health, 56.5 percent of the German population had received at least one vaccination dose by Sunday, so 38.9 percent were fully vaccinated.

If the vaccination protection has fully built up, the vaccinated have a high level of protection against hospital treatment, even against the Delta variant, according to the current state of knowledge.

Spahn: The rate of vaccination is decreasing

According to participants in the presidium, Spahn said the vaccination campaign was going well, but the pace was slowing. In the vaccination centers, the appointments are not immediately gone, but are available for a while. He advocated combining vaccination offers with activities of the people, for example a visit to the stadium. To be vaccinated must make a difference to not being vaccinated. Booster vaccinations could be offered in the fall due to capacity. With regard to the reporting obligations, new parameters would increasingly be included in the statistics, for example not only the occupancy of the intensive care beds, but also the hospital stay.

The topic of the corona development in schools will come with force after the summer holidays, said Spahn.

The Hessian Prime Minister and Deputy CDU Federal Chairman Volker Bouffier was quoted as saying that the schools must remain open at all costs.

There should be no speculation about this.

The deputy CDU chairman and Baden-Württemberg interior minister Thomas Strobl said that he was depressed by the corona situation.

There are full stadiums, the "Ballermann" on Mallorca is open, planes are filled to the last seat.

From an infection point of view, this is dangerous.

The President of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble, made a similar statement.

The corona situation between the end of the holiday and the federal election at the end of September must be controllable, he warned.

Meanwhile, the deputy CDU chairwoman Julia Klöckner spoke out against penalties for people who do not keep their vaccination appointment. A very sensitive approach must be taken in this context. At the weekend there was a discussion about penalties for skipped vaccination appointments. "It would be right if there were a penalty for those who do not even cancel their appointment," said SPD health specialist Karl Lauterbach of the newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

FDP Deputy Chief Wolfgang Kubicki spoke out against fines for truant vaccination appointments.

It is "annoying and unsocial" to miss an agreed date, said FDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki to the partner newspapers of the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft.

"Nevertheless, it would make more sense to first appeal to people to cancel their appointment in good time so that others can receive the vaccine."

The President of the German District Assembly, Reinhard Sager, sees it similarly: "The districts reject penalties for people who do not attend their second vaccination appointment without being canceled," he told the newspaper Welt.

"Instead of thinking about punishments, we should consider: What can we do to keep vaccinating up?"

Holetschek appeals to solidarity

Bavaria's Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) appealed to the solidarity of the citizens.

He told the newspapers Augsburger Allgemeine and Welt, should it become apparent that this solidarity does not exist in parts of society, “we have to think about how we can demand this in the interests of everyone, possibly also through sanctions”.

The German Association of Cities called for a stronger commitment from politicians to convince those unwilling to vaccinate.

“We need to address more people who have so far been reluctant to vaccinate.

We have to make them low-threshold offers and persuade them, ”said the President of the German Association of Cities and Mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung (SPD), of the“ Rheinische Post ”.