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Germany: Bundestag to Give Vaccinated Persons and Former Corona Patients More Rights

In Berlin, it is now up to the Bundestag to decide about the government’s intention to return some basic rights to vaccinated individuals and persons who were infected with Corona in the past. They are supposed to be exempt from curfews and contact restrictions.

Berlin, May 6th, 2021 (The Berlin Spectator) — Persons who were infected with Corona within the past six months will most likely neither be infected again, nor pass on infections to others. The same applies to those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. For that reason, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government wants to return some basic rights to them. Her cabinet already approved a regulation that could be put in place within days. First, the Bundestag, and the Bundesrat need to approve it.

No Choice

In Germany, there are voices who say giving more rights to vaccinated and cured individuals will lead to discontent among those who will not get those rights back for now. On the other hand, legal experts believe there is no choice. Legally, basic rights such as meeting people or walking around in the city at 2:00 a.m. needed to be returned to those who did not pose a danger to others anymore right away, they say. The discussion about how to proceed in this context has been going on for a while now.

So has criticism in regard to parts of Germany’s amended Infection Protection Act. Several politicians had taken the part about nightly curfews in counties with high Corona Incidences to the Federal Constitutional Court, by filing urgent motions against the regulation. The court now rejected the latter. Wednesday’s verdict only applies to the urgent motions, meaning it does not say whether the recent amendment to the law is constitutional or not. This main question is supposed to be answered later.

Dropping Incidences

Soon, the so-called ’emergency brake’ law, which includes those nightly curfews, will not apply anymore in many of Germany’s 412 counties. The Seven Day Incidences in many regions are decreasing. With Brandenburg, another federal state just dropped down below 100. While Schleswig-Holstein had been there all along, Hamburg and Lower Saxony recently joined the club of states with relatively low incidences. Berlin, where the Incidence stands at 103.7 right now, might be next.

All relevant Corona numbers for Germany, and daily Corona updates, can be found in our Corona chronology.

Because Berlin is a city state, an Incidence below 100 for five consecutive business days would automatically get rid of the ’emergency brake’ regulation there, in the entire capital. Rhineland-Palatinate could be dropping below 100 quickly as well. It’s latest Incidence Number is 107.6. Thuringia continues to be Germany’s Corona hotspot. On Thursday, this federal state was still above 200. It’s Saale-Orla county’s Incidence is 545.4. No other county in Germany comes even close. The Incidence Number shows how many persons have been infected with Corona per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days.

AstraZeneca for All

In the meantime, Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn intends to get rid of the prioritization for vaccinations with the AstraZeneca product. He would discuss this approach with his colleagues in the federal states, Spahn said on WDR television. Once the prioritization falls, everyone will be able to get vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. There have been several health scares in connection with this product. Its use has been suspended temporarily twice in the past few weeks. The prioritization for all vaccines is supposed to be removed at some point in June.

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