Scholz Aims to ‘Winter Proof’ Germany Against New Covid Wave
Scholz Aims to ‘Winter Proof’ Germany Against New Covid Wave
(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz urged more people to get vaccinated against Covid-19 after Europe’s biggest economy recorded more than 50,000 new cases in one day for the first time.
Scholz, who aims to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel early next month, said Germany needs to be “winter-proofed” against the disease, and it will be mostly up to state governments to decide which measures and restrictions are needed in their region.
“Many fewer vaccinated people are affected by the infection than those who haven’t been inoculated,” Scholz said Thursday in a speech to the lower house of parliament. Getting a Covid-19 shot is “the best solution for everyone,” he added, in his first public comments on the pandemic for several weeks.
Germany’s efforts at keeping the coronavirus under control have been complicated by a lackluster vaccination campaign, with millions of adults not yet inoculated. The pending change of government after 16 years under Merkel -- who has pushed for tighter restrictions -- has also impinged on pandemic management.
Merkel has voiced opposition to the incoming coalition parties’ decision to allow a nationwide emergency law to lapse on Nov. 25. That move would effectively rule out national lockdowns and school closures.
Instead, states will have more leeway to impose measures such as allowing only vaccinated and recovered citizens into shops and restaurants. The Free Democrats, who will likely be part of the next government, have opposed the emergency legislation and blanket lockdowns.
That’s opened a clash between the outgoing and incoming governments. Merkel on Wednesday called for immediate action -- an “effort of the entire state.”
Ceding ground on the issue, Scholz said state leaders will meet with the chancellor and federal officials to discuss the situation next Thursday -- a forum used by Merkel since the first outbreak in 2020. Scholz will also be present.
Bundestag lawmakers on Thursday debated updated legislation to tackle Covid-19 drawn up by Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the Free Democrats -- the three parties in talks to form the next ruling coalition.
The law, which is due for final approval next week, is designed to provide a nationwide framework while giving regions room to tighten restrictions in coronavirus hotspots.
“We want to provide the regions with a targeted set of instruments,” Dirk Wiese, a deputy SPD caucus leader, said Thursday in an interview with ARD television. “This gives them the powers to tackle these high coronavirus numbers.”
The hardest opposition to measures continued to come from the far-right Alternative for Germany party. The AfD was the only party in the Bundestag to reject rules requiring lawmakers to be vaccinated, recovered or show a negative test to enter parliament.
Cases surged by a record 50,196 nationwide and the seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 people climbed to 249.1, according to the latest figures from the RKI public-health institute updated early Thursday. Deaths from the disease rose by 235 to a total of 97,198.
The southern state of Bavaria has declared the latest wave of the pandemic a “disaster situation.”
“In many hospitals there is already no, or only very little, capacity available,” Bavaria Premier Markus Soeder said Wednesday in a tweet. Declaring a disaster makes it easier to distribute patients around the region’s hospitals, he added.
Bavaria has the third-highest incidence rate after Saxony and Thuringia and the three regions also have some of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates.
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