Germany has tightened curbs on unvaccinated people and paved the way for mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations next year as it ramps up pressure on those refusing the jab.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz announced the measures after a hastily scheduled meeting with the leaders of Germany’s 16 states.
The country has hit its highest level of Covid infections since the pandemic began, putting unprecedented strain on hospitals.
“The fourth wave must be broken,” Merkel told journalists after the meeting. “The situation is very serious. The number of infections has stabilized but at far too high a level.’
The leaders decided to hold a vote in the Bundestag on whether to make vaccines mandatory, which would be likely from February. They also issued a decree that will require jabs for workers at care homes and hospitals, similar to rules in Greece, Italy, and France.
The idea of mandatory vaccines is under growing scrutiny in Europe. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, called this week for a discussion of a “common approach” to compulsory jabs. Austria last month said it would make vaccines mandatory.
The German regulations laid out on Thursday will severely curb access to the public as well as private activities for those who are unvaccinated, at present about 28 percent of the population.
“We have many who have been vaccinated,” Scholz, who is expected to succeed Merkel as chancellor next week, told journalists. “But ‘many’ is not enough. ”
Using what is known in Germany as the “2G” rule, soon only the vaccinated and those who have recovered from Covid will be able to go into shops and cultural institutions.
Once the rules are implemented, a household of vaccine holdouts will only be able to meet two people from another household.