Germany plans 'lockdown' for unvaccinated to tackle Covid surge
Plans include ban on entering leisure facilities such as cinemas and non-essential shops
BERLIN : German leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and her designated successor Olaf Scholz, were expected to approve a de facto "lockdown for the unvaccinated" to combat surging Covid-19 cases.
Dr Merkel, Mr Scholz and the leaders of Germany's 16 states tightened Covid restrictions just two weeks ago, but are in talks again to impose even tougher measures amid a raging fourth wave of the virus.
According to a draft agreement seen by AFP, the plans include a blanket ban on entering bars, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and other leisure facilities for anyone who has not been vaccinated or recovered from Covid - a system known as 2G in Germany.
The unvaccinated would also be banned from Christmas markets and non-essential shops, as well as be hit by contact restrictions limiting the number of people they can socialise with.
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The agreement calls for new restrictions on large gatherings, which would affect events such as Bundesliga football matches, and the closure of nightclubs in areas with a weekly incidence rate above 350 infections for every 100,000 people.
Health Minister Jens Spahn, in a caretaker role ahead of the planned swearing in of a new government next week, told the ZDF broadcaster that Germany needed "a lockdown, so to speak, for the unvaccinated".
Infections have smashed German records in recent weeks and hospitals are sounding the alarm, with many over capacity and forced to dispatch patients elsewhere in the country for treatment.
Though Germany's seven-day incidence rate has fallen slightly this week, it still stood at 439.2 yesterday, with 73,209 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours.
"From the point of view of intensive and emergency medicine, the pandemic situation has never been as threatening and serious as it is today," the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine warned on Wednesday, calling for a tightening of restrictions.
Several hard-hit German regions have already cancelled Christmas markets and barred the unvaccinated from public spaces such as gyms and leisure facilities.
But critics say the patchwork of rules is confusing, and yesterday's emergency talks were aimed at coming up with nationwide rules.
Many experts have partly blamed Germany's fourth wave on its relatively low vaccination rate of around 68 per cent, compared with other European Union countries such as Spain at 79 per cent and Portugal at 86 per cent.
Dr Merkel's outgoing government had always ruled out mandatory vaccination, but the measure is now backed by politicians from across the spectrum. - AFP
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