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Unvaccinated may face restrictions in Germany, official says
People queue in their cars at a drive-in vaccination centre against the coronavirus disease in Berlin. — Reuters
Berlin - Unvaccinated people may be barred from entering venues like restaurants, movie theatres and stadiums
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff has warned that restrictions for unvaccinated people may be necessary if Covid-19 infection numbers reach new heights in the coming months.
But Helge Braun said in an interview with the newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he doesn’t expect another coronavirus-related lockdown in Germany.
Braun said that unvaccinated people may be barred from entering venues like restaurants, movie theatres and stadiums “because the residual risk is too high”.
Braun said getting vaccinated is important to protect against severe disease and because “vaccinated people will definitely have more freedoms than unvaccinated people”.
Braun said that such policies would be legal because “the state has the responsibility to protect the health of its citizens”.
Germany’s vaccine efforts have slowed in recent weeks and that has led to discussions about how to encourage those who haven’t yet received a vaccine to do so. More than 60 per cent of the German population has received at least one dose while over 49 per cent are fully vaccinated.
With the highly transmissible delta variant spreading in Germany, politicians have debated the possibility of requiring vaccination for specific professions, including medical workers. No such requirements have been implemented for now.
During a recent visit to the Robert Koch Institute, the government run disease control agency, Merkel ruled out new vaccine requirements “at the moment”. The government would prefer to focus on encouraging vaccination for the time being, she said.
She added: “I’m not ruling out that this might be talked about differently in a few months either.”
Winfried Kretschmann, governor of the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg, noted on Sunday that the delta variant and others that may emerge could make vaccine requirements more attractive down the line.
While there are no current plans to require people to get vaccinated, he told the German news agency DPA: “I can’t rule out compulsory vaccinations for all time.”
Others immediately pushed back against Braun’s comments on Sunday, warning against freedoms and rights based on one’s vaccination status.
“Of course, we need incentives to reach the highest possible vaccination rate,” Marco Buschmann, parliamentary group leader for the pro-business Free Democrats, told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group.
Still, he said, if it’s true that unvaccinated people who have been tested or recovered from the virus pose no greater danger than vaccinated people, to impose such restrictions on the unvaccinated “would be a violation of their basic rights.”
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