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GERMANY IS EXPERIENCING a “massive” pandemic of the unvaccinated, Health Minister Jens Spahn has said, calling for curbs targeting those not inoculated to tame a resurgence in Covid cases.
The fourth wave is raging “with exceptional force”, Spahn said.
“We are currently experiencing mainly a pandemic of the unvaccinated and it is massive,” he told reporters, warning that “in some regions in Germany intensive care beds are running out again.”
Germany, the EU’s most populous country of some 83 million people, has been grappling with a fourth wave of Covid-19 cases in recent weeks that has pushed up the seven-day incidence rate to highs not seen since May.
The country added 20,398 cases over the past 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch health institute, while another 194 people died.
Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called the coronavirus trend “very worrying”, signalled she was in favour of stricter curbs focussed on the unvaccinated.
“If the pandemic situations in hospitals worsens… then further restrictions for unvaccinated people are possible,” Merkel said through her spokesman Steffen Seibert.
The number of Covid patients in intensive care today climbed to 2,226, up almost 26% on the previous week to reach the highest level since early June, according to Germany’s DIVI registry.
Booster plea
More than 66% of the population is fully vaccinated, but a recent survey showed that the vast majority of Germany’s still unvaccinated adults have no intention of getting inoculated against Covid.
“For the unvaccinated, the risk is high that they will become infected in the coming months,” warned RKI chief Lothar Wieler, speaking alongside Spahn in Berlin.
Spahn called for more thorough checks at establishments or events where only those who can show they have been vaccinated, recovered from Covid or recently tested negative are allowed to enter.
In hard-hit regions, he said, access should be limited to those who are fully vaccinated or can show proof of recovery – a system that excludes the unvaccinated and is known as ’2G’ in Germany.
“It’s nothing to do with vaccine bullying,” he said, “but with avoiding an overloading of the healthcare system”.
He also recommended a bigger push on booster jabs, saying the current pace “is insufficient”.
Spahn’s plea for all vaccinated Germans to get a third jab after six months is however at odds with the nation’s STIKO vaccine commission, which for now is only recommending booster shots for the elderly and certain at-risk groups.
For the elderly, getting a booster was urgent, said Leif Erik Sander, who leads a research group on infection immunology at Berlin’s Charite hospital.
“Our studies show that around 40% of people above 70 no longer have neutralising antibodies against the Delta variant six months after their vaccination,” he warned.
Patchwork
The Covid surge comes as Germany is in political limbo following September’s general election, with the winning Social Democrats hoping to have a new coalition government in place by early December.
The incoming coalition parties have however reiterated that there will be no mandatory Covid jabs and no new lockdowns – at least not for the vaccinated.
Merkel’s outgoing chief of staff Helge Braun called for an urgent meeting between the caretaker federal government and the regional leaders of Germany’s 16 states to discuss the Covid surge.
Under Germany’s federal system, regional states have significant powers to decide their own Covid approach, at times leading to a confusing patchwork of regulations.
The southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg on Wednesday introduced new rules in response to the fourth wave, after breaching a self-imposed threshold on occupied intensive care beds.
Unvaccinated adults in the state must now show a negative PCR test for many activities, including indoor dining and entry to cinemas, museums or gyms. The tests can cost upwards of €50.
The eastern state of Saxony aims to unveil tougher restrictions on Friday.
Under its proposed ’2G’ plans, unvaccinated people would be excluded from indoor dining, leisure facilities as well as bars and nightclubs.
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This headline should read ” insurance company reaping the benefits of gender directive”.
My insurance hasn’t gone down whatsoever! Also under this directive can I get a refund on the €4200 I paid for my first Years insurance back in the day
It’s all about equality.
Equality not so great now ladies.
Can men reclaim the horrific car insurance payments they made in their late teens and early twenties whilst women drove off paying less than half those rates? It was pure discrimination.
So is the article complaining that there is equality now?
It seems so.
Michelle must have enjoyed all those complimentary comments yesterday, because she’s on fire this morning.
I thought it was more that insurance companies are taking advantage of the directive?
It’s about time.
Isn’t equality nice!
I suppose the usual bleaters will complain now because things are not equal enough for them…
… and perhaps post such thoughts up in the form of articles.
There are positives and negatives of equality. You can’t expect to reap the gains and avoid the loses!
Cue Sinéad giving out!
Can’t wait for the age directive so older motorists have to pay the same as younger motorists
Mine still costs €1200 a year, which I can’t afford. Even my friends who now have full licences are paying at least €800 a year.
Complete Bo#$&x. Not a claim ever my renewal quote doubled this week, I don’t recall having a sex change. Even scouring around general quotes more than last years premium.
Mine went up significantly after the gender directive, but I noticed that my older sister, who doesn’t even have a full licence, still paid less than me. So age must be a factor too. My premium has now come down again thankfully, but all savings will be lost by the time I have to renew my health insurance!
Go online to renew health insurance, big money can be saved that way
Mine went down in fact all i pay is €350 fully comp. Its great really considering it was 800 two years ago… roll on the equality movement… next i hope that ALL my fellow citizens who drive around in 2014 brand new cars and hi-aces have to pay actual income tax and have benefits stopped until they can prove income… now there’s a novel idea.
I’m amused you are envious of those who drive HiAces…
There should be a tax on excess cynicism and assuming the worst about your fellow citizens.
Good
They obviously didn’t talk to Aviva if the research is indicating an average price drop for men.
My claim trippled this week. When I rang them I was told that all insurance was going up all across the board due to more claims. I had to shop around, I got a cheaper quote only 100euro over my old quote. Insurance companies are like criminals. Charge what they like with no fear.
Seeing as this a gender directive should LBGTI persons incur more costs , on account of their sexual mis-adventures and the dangers therin …, or is gender not a social construct when it comes to health insurance ?
Sorry?
Are you suggesting a gay person sleeps around more then a heterosexual?
Go out on any Saturday night and you’ll see a heterosexual person hooks up sleeps around the same as somebody that is gay, their all human’s after all with the same urges and desires.
Gender is not the same as sexuality.ffs.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/service/advertorials/sexually-transmitted-infections-in-men-who-have-sex-with-men-msm-continue-to-soar-30086359.html , I’m merely stating a fact and proposed that perhaps a person who “identifies” as gay should bear the financial brunt if their lifestyle choice endangers their health
Don’t feed the troll/Neanderthal lads
Gay women are at a lower risk. Should they pay less?
As a gay women, I don’t think so.
They say gender doesn’t matter, yet they all ask if you’re male or female with no choice to ignore answering so I’m sceptical regarding any real change.
My Broker is charging a fee of €45 for renewal through them. I went online myself and got a cheaper quote than they got for me. A follow up call from the insurer got me another 5% off. Needless to say I’m taking care of business myself this year.
‘Gender directive’ – hate these euphemisms.
It’s not a euphemism. There really is a European Directive and it really does deal with gender. Council Directive 2004/113/EC if you’re interested.
So equal pay will be next on the agenda. Men get paid more than women in the same job so I suppose when they balance it as they have done here, the extra pay we will get will offset the hike in insurance. Of course by the same token the drop in wages for men will be offset by the drop in insurance
No they don’t
Equality, its all fun and games untill you see what it really means :)
Smoking , drinking heavily , pharmacuetical drug dependence , illegal drug use , over or under eating & depression would be factored into a quote for health cover , why not the practice of unsafe sex?
It depends on how the companies define unsafe sex? It also would depend on how they would regulate it and prove it. If people don’t admit to it, and are healthy, it can’t be proven. Unlike smoking, drug use, dangerous work etc.
have your say