After the Bundestag's decision against compulsory corona vaccination, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) sees no possibility of further reducing the containment measures against the pandemic.

"We used up what we could do to loosen up," he said on Friday in Berlin.

There is “no leeway” for further steps.

With the current containment measures based on the Infection Protection Act, the country will “certainly not make ends meet in the fall,” added Lauterbach.

For example, “with a high degree of probability” it will not work without the reintroduction of a mask requirement in many areas.

So the law needs to be changed again.

If compulsory vaccination had been decided, "more freedom in the Infection Protection Act" would probably have been possible, said Lauterbach.

In his view, compulsory vaccination would have been “urgently necessary”.

A draft law for compulsory corona vaccination for everyone over 60 failed on Thursday in the Bundestag.

"It was a bad week for protecting the population from corona infection," said Lauterbach. The Bundestag decision was "a clear and bitter defeat for all those who advocate compulsory vaccination," including himself.

At the same time, it is bad news for the health workers who look after corona patients and for all members of vulnerable groups, according to Lauterbach.

It is also "sad news" in relation to the serious illnesses and deaths that could have been prevented by compulsory vaccination.

Scholz sees no basis for a new start

After the failure, Lauterbach and his Bavarian colleague Klaus Holetschek (CSU) spoke out in favor of making a new attempt at general vaccination.

He would continue to try "to achieve compulsory vaccination by autumn in order to avoid unnecessary victims in the fall," Lauterbach confirmed in the "Bild" newspaper (Friday).

"As a doctor and as a politician, I never give up when it comes to other people's lives."

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, sees no basis for a renewed attempt.

The statement by Parliament was very clear, said the SPD politician on Thursday evening in Berlin.

“There is no legislative majority in the Bundestag for compulsory vaccination.

That is the reality that we now have to take as a starting point for our actions." Lauterbach then announced on Deutschlandfunk that he shared Olaf Scholz's assessment, "that the probability that we will achieve anything through talks is very low". .

Creative vaccination campaign

In his press conference on Friday, Lauterbach confirmed that he wanted to continue holding talks in the Bundestag on the subject of compulsory vaccination.

But he was "very skeptical".

The Federal Minister of Health announced that he now wanted to “take another creative campaign for vaccination”.

"If we do it creatively and well", the vaccination rate could be increased by autumn. 

Lauterbach said about the current corona situation that the number of new infections was currently declining significantly.

“We have now come to a relatively stable decline in the number of cases.” However, things are not looking so good for serious illnesses and deaths.