Germany considers easing curbs for vaccinated people
The debate comes as Germany is struggling to tame a third wave of coronavirus; half of UK population has had first jab; Spanish man charged with infecting 22 people with COVID-19
Germany plans to ease some of the current coronavirus restrictions for people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a drat text drawn up by the government and seen by AFP at the weekend.
The proposal is to be discussed at a meeting on Monday by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and the powerful regional state premiers.
According to the drat text, it was a question not of awarding people with proven immunity any special privileges, but of “liting curbs on their basic rights that are no longer justified.”
The debate comes as Germany is struggling to tame a third wave of coronavirus infections, and just 22 per cent of Germans have had their first of two COVID-19 jabs.
Under the proposed relaxations, people who are fully vaccinated would no longer have to show a recent negative coronavirus test to enter certain shops, get a haircut or atend certain events.
They would also be exempt from quarantining ater returning from abroad, unless they were coming from a country classed as a high-risk virus variant area such as India.
Rules on social distancing and mask wearing would still apply to everyone.
German politicians from across the political spectrum have come out in favour of giving vaccinated people more freedoms.
BRITAIN: The United Kingdom has reached another COVID-19 vaccination milestone with over half of the population having had at least one injection, health secretary Mat Hancock said on Saturday.
Official data showed a total of 33.51 million people in the UK have received the first dose, with more than 12 million people having been given both.
“It’s a brilliant milestone,” Hancock said in a clip on Twiter.
The UK’S official population is 66.8 million, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
Britain’s vaccine rollout, which has raced ahead of countries in the European Union, means it is on track to ease lockdown measures and re-open the economy in line with its plan.
SPAIN: A Spanish man with COVID-19 symptoms who coughed on work colleagues and told them “I’m going to give you all the coronavirus” has been charged with intentionally causing injury ater allegedly infecting 22 people.
Spanish police said their investigation began ater a COVID-19 outbreak at the company where the 40-year-old man worked on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.
Days before the outbreak, the man showed COVID-19 symptoms but refused his colleagues’ suggestions to go home and self-isolate, police said in a statement.
Ater work, and showing no improvement, he went for a PCR test before visiting a gym and returning to work the next day. Though his superiors told him to go home ater he allegedly had showed a temperature of 40°C, the man refused.
He walked around his workplace, lowering his face mask and coughing on people, saying “I’m going to infect you all with the coronavirus,” according to police.
At the end of the day, his PCR test came back positive. His colleagues were then tested, with five returning positive results. They in turn infected family members, including three infants, police said. At the gym the man visited, three people tested positive and also infected family members.
None of those infected required hospitalisation, police said.
A judge charged the man, who was not identified by police, and released him on Saturday evening to await trial, Spain’s Europa Press news agency reported.
America: Governor Jay Inslee said that inoculations with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can begin in Washington state following a review by scientific experts in a western states work group.
The Seatle Times reported that the Western States Scientific Safety Review work group — vaccine experts from Washington, California, Oregon and Nevada — met on Friday to review data about the vaccine’s potential risks, ater more than a dozen women nationwide developed rare blood clots.