Current Corona situation Lauterbach promotes further contact restrictions
Bonn/Region · Omicron will be the dominant Corona variant in Germany in a few days. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has reiterated his call for further contact restrictions. Here are the latest developments surrounding the pandemic.
Lauterbach calls for further contact restrictions
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has reiterated his call for further contact restrictions ahead of new federal-state consultations on the Corona pandemic. He considers this necessary in view of the Omicron wave, the SPD politician said on ZDF's "heute journal" on Wednesday evening. It was necessary to proceed with a sense of proportion, but Lauterbach also emphasised: "We will probably have to step up the measures again." In addition, adjusted quarantine rules and a continuation of the booster campaign are necessary. Booster vaccinations are the best protection against the Omicron variant. Lauterbach called for a resumption of the high vaccination rate as before Christmas.
Education ministers: schools should remain open
The education ministers of the federal states stick to their line that schools should be kept open in the current Corona situation. "Even if the pandemic changes due to a new variant of the virus, we have to pay even closer attention to the needs of children and young people. This means that we will only close schools when all other options have been exhausted," said Karin Prien (CDU), President of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, on Wednesday after a special meeting of the ministers. Classes have started again in half of the federal states after the Christmas break. Millions more pupils will return next week.
City of Bonn calls for state-wide compulsory testing in day-care centres
At its meeting on Wednesday, 5 January, the crisis management team of the City of Bonn spoke out in favour of a state-wide compulsory test in day-care centres for children and will communicate this demand to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This was announced by the City of Bonn. The city has been one of a few municipalities to introduce PCR pool tests since October 2021. This has offered children and employees in day-care centres greater security in the detection of Corona infections than the self-tests distributed at the time could guarantee. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has so far only provided voluntary self-tests to be carried out by parents at home.
(Original text: dpa/ga; Translation: Mareike Graepel)
