Germany plans ‘immunity certificates’ to help end lockdown

100,000 people at a time would be tested, with those who have overcome the virus able to return to work

GERMAN researchers plan to introduce coronavirus “immunity certificates” to facilitate a proper transition into post-lockdown life, as the handling of the crisis by Angela Merkel, the chancellor, has led to a boost in the polls.

Antibody test results will indicate that participants have had the virus, have healed and are thereby ready to re-enter society and the workforce.

The researchers plan to test 100,000 members of the public at a time, issuing documentation to those who have overcome the virus.

The researchers will use the information to determine how to properly end the country’s lockdown, including reopening schools and allowing mass gatherings.

The immunity certificates are part of a research project being carried out at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, in Braunschweig, which will conduct blood tests to look for antibodies produced against the novel coronavirus in the general public, reports Der Spiegel magazine.

“Those who are immune can then be given a vaccination certificate that would, for example, allow them to be exempt from any [lockdown-related] restrictions on their work,” said Gerard Krause, the epidemiologist leading the project.

The test will give researchers a better idea of how many people have contracted the virus, with indications in Germany and elsewhere that large proportions of the population may have contracted it without knowing.

The test is also an improvement on existing blood tests which would indicate a degree of immunity to coronaviruses, but not specifically to Covid-19.

The project is yet to receive final approval but is expected to go ahead in April, with the first wave of results ready by the end of the month.

Despite having the fifth highest number of infected cases anywhere in the world, Germany has one of the lowest death rates – which has been at least in part credited to the government’s proactive testing regime.

A German military plane yesterday took patients from eastern France, one of the worst-hit areas in the country, to Germany. A small group of patients from eastern France and Lombardy, in

northern Italy, are already being treated in Germany.

The government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has seen a surge in public support for Mrs Merkel, who has experienced a boost in the polls since the outbreak started.

Yesterday, her approval ratings were between 32 and 35 per cent – a 6 to 7 per cent increase on ratings before the pandemic hit.

Support for Mrs Merkel’s governing CDU-SPD coalition has also risen, while the standing of the far-right Alternative for Germany party has fallen below 10 per cent in recent days.

Polling released yesterday shows the governing coalition is enjoying a majority for the first time since June 2018.

♦ The state finance minister of Germany’s Hesse region, which includes Frankfurt, has been found dead.

Authorities said he appears to have killed himself and the state’s governor suggested yesterday that he was in despair over the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.

The body of Thomas Schaefer, a 54-year-old member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, was found on Saturday on railway tracks at Hochheim, near Frankfurt. Police and prosecutors said that factors including questioning of witnesses and their own observations at the scene led them to conclude that Mr Schaefer had killed himself.

Volker Bouffier, the state governor, linked Mr Schaefer’s death to the virus crisis yesterday.

Mr Bouffier said Mr Schaefer was worried about “whether it would be possible to succeed in fulfilling the population’s huge expectations, particularly of financial help”.

“I have to assume that these worries overwhelmed him,” Mr Bouffier said. “He was in despair and left us.”

Germany’s federal and state governments have drawn up huge aid packages to cushion the blow of largely shutting down public life to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Mr Schaefer had been Hesse’s state finance minister for a decade.