Germany Proposing To Ban The Unvaccinated From Nearly Everywhere

Germany’s health ministry is preparing sweeping measures next month that could exclude unvaccinated people from many areas of public life if Covid-19 infection rates continue to rise.

What is being proposed?

The measures, which would be among the strictest in Europe, would ensure that only those who have been vaccinated against the virus, have recovered from an infection, or those who can demonstrate a negative test result would be able to access many facilities.

The Health Ministry indicated that the government was considering the idea of imposing restrictions that they called the “2G rule,” on unvaccinated people in the event that infections and hospitalizations continue to rise. This would only allow vaccinated or recovered people to attend certain facilities while unvaccinated people would be excluded.

This could ban the unvaccinated from going to restaurants, gyms or hairdressers,, indoor sports and large outdoor events or participated in other activities.

“Tests are therefore becoming a prerequisite, for example, for access to hospitals, old people’s and nursing homes, indoor catering, events and celebrations, but also for visits to the hairdresser or the cosmetic studio. The same applies to indoor sports or accommodation, for example in hotels and guest houses,” the government said on Tuesday.

“I say to all those of you who are still unsure: A vaccination doesn’t just protect you, it protects the people you care about, the people who mean a lot to you, your loved ones,” Merkel said.

Source: https://www.politicsvideochannel.com/

German Museums Tentatively Reopen As Virus Restrictions Ease

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — More than 100 Andy Warhol originals have been hanging on the walls of Cologne’s Museum Ludwig since mid-December with nobody to view them after coronavirus restrictions shut down galleries across the country.

That changed on Tuesday as the doors were opened to limited numbers of guests, after authorities eased restrictions to allow some museums, galleries and certain other cultural venues to begin receiving visitors again.

“We’ve been working on this exhibit for three and a half years and for the last few weeks it was ready, but couldn’t be shown,” curator and museum director Yilmaz Dziewior told The Associated Press.

“You can imagine how happy we all are here at that house that finally the audience for whom we created the exhibition can also see it.”

Museums throughout Germany closed at the beginning of November as coronavirus cases increased. Under new regulations, museums in areas with fewer than 50 new infections weekly per 100,000 residents can open without major restrictions, other than standard mask, hygiene and distancing rules.

When the rate is between 50 to 100 as in Cologne, tickets are being limited to online purchase and restricted in numbers. For the Warhol exhibit they quickly sold out through Sunday. A new batch will go on sale Monday so long as the coronavirus numbers don’t change dramatically.

The ex­hi­bi­tion was organized by the museum in concert with London’s Tate Mod­ern in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Art Gallery of On­tario, Toron­to and the As­pen Art Mu­se­um, Col­o­ra­do.

It seeks to illuminate the influence of Warhol’s immigrant background and his own homosexuality through his works, as well as how he dealt with death and religion, the museum said.

“Just as his celebri­ty por­traits and Co­ca-Co­la bot­tles held a mir­ror up to Amer­i­can so­ci­e­ty, Warhol stands for a di­verse, queer coun­ter­cul­ture that found its ex­pres­sion not least in his New York stu­dio, the Fac­to­ry,” the museum said in its description of the exhibition.

Cologne resident Karl Eiband was one of the lucky ones who got tickets to Tuesday’s opening of the exhibit, and said that for him it restored a little piece of one of the many things he has been missing during the pandemic lockdown.

“Like my evening beer, I miss art,” the 44-year-old said. “And since I don’t have the resources to hang a tiny Warhol in my living room, I visit the Museum Ludwig because it’s my living room for culture and art.”

The exhibit, “Andy Warhol Now,” runs through June 13.

Germany To Reinstate Border Controls Over Virus Variant

BERLIN (AP) — The German government decided Thursday to temporarily reinstate border controls along its southeastern frontier after designating the Czech Republic and parts of Austria as “mutation areas” due to their high number of variant coronavirus cases, German news agency dpa reported.

The temporary border controls and certain entry restrictions will start Sunday at midnight, dpa reported.

Travelers coming from certain areas of Austria or the Czech Republic will have to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test in order to enter Germany, a requirement that will present a hurdle for thousands of cross-border workers.

It was not clear for how long the border controls would last.

Bavaria Governor Markus Soeder, whose state borders both Austria and the Czech Republic, said earlier Thursday that if the federal government designated the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol region as mutation areas, Bavaria would request permission to erect border posts where travelers who don’t present a negative COVID-19 test would be turned away.

Soeder said all the regions of Bavaria with high coronavirus infection rates, except for one, are located on the German-Czech border.
He praised measures taken by the Czech Republic to contain the spread of virus variants and criticized authorities in Tyrol, saying they appeared not to be taking the issue seriously.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed late Wednesday to extend the country’s current pandemic lockdown until at least March 7, in part due to fears over more contagious variants.

Schools and hairdressers will be able to open earlier, albeit with strict hygiene measures.

In a speech to Parliament on Thursday, Merkel defended her government’s decision to set a lower infection target for easing the lockdown further: a number of new weekly cases per 100,000 inhabitants below 35.

“The virus doesn’t follow dates, the virus follows infections numbers,” she told lawmakers.

Germany’s disease control agency said there were just over 64 cases per 100,000 inhabitants nationwide in the past week, down from over 200 before Christmas.

The Robert Koch Institute on Thursday added 10,237 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 666 deaths to Germany’s totals, bringing the country’s overall case count since the start of the pandemic to 2.31 million and the death toll to 63,635.

Germany Set To Extend Hard Lockdown As Daily Deaths Mount

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s disease control center on Tuesday reported 944 more COVID-19 deaths, fueling expectations that Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors will extend the country’s lockdown until the end of the month.

Germany’s latest lockdown took effect Dec. 16 after a partial shutdown starting in early November failed to reduce the number of daily new coronavirus infections. It was initially set to expire Jan. 10.

Merkel’s meeting with the governors on Tuesday will decide how long the lockdown should go on and to what extent schools will reopen. Another topic high on the agenda will be addressing criticism of the country’s vaccination program amid frustrations over its gradual start.

Vaccinations in Germany and the rest of the 27-nation European Union started over a week ago. In Germany, a nation of 83 million, nearly 265,000 vaccinations had been reported by Monday, the Robert Koch Institute said.

Opposition politicians and even some within Germany’s governing coalition have criticized the EU’s cautious advance ordering of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — the only one so far cleared for use in EU nations. The EU’s medical regulator is also evaluating a vaccine by Moderna.

The country’s health minister has repeatedly said that the vaccinations are progressing as expected and that the slow start is because mobile teams are first going to nursing homes to vaccinate the most vulnerable, which takes more time than inviting people to mass vaccination centers.

Still, in a nod to the heavy pressure, Health Minister Jens Spahn said he has asked the country’s agency in charge of vaccinations if the second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could be delayed in order to be able to vaccinate more people right away with a first shot. Britain has embraced such a plan with its vaccinations, but the move is being hotly debated by scientists and governments around the world.

Germany’s new infections remain at more than twice the level of 50 per 100,000 residents over seven days, which the government wants to reach. In part because of lower testing and delayed reporting, it’s not yet clear what effect the Christmas holidays will have on Germany’s new coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

Germany has reported 35,518 virus-related deaths overall.