In Berlin, the intensive traffic light turned yellow on Tuesday Photo: Guenther Ralf Guenther
By Michael Sauerbier
The corona numbers are rising steeply again: In Berlin, the intensive traffic light jumped to yellow on Tuesday, Potsdam is the corona hotspot in eastern Germany. But the Senate and the Brandenburg government have to look on helplessly.
Red alert in the federal and state capital! Berlin reported 504 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants on Tuesday, three Covid patients died. Potsdam’s incidence is even 761. Unprecedented for a summer month. Last July, the Potsdam value was only 3.3.
“The pandemic is not over, on the contrary,” says Brandenburg’s Health Minister Ursula Nonnemacher (65, Greens). The hospital beds are already filling up again. The hospitalization incidence in Berlin has doubled to 8.6 since June. Warning light red! The intensive traffic light also switched from green to yellow on Tuesday.
Brandenburg
“We are currently observing relevant staff shortages again,” says the Senate – and can do nothing. The reason: “According to the Infection Protection Act, the federal states are only left with basic protective measures such as the obligation to wear a mask in public transport. That’s all we can decide.”
Berlin and Brandenburg are now calling for the Federal Infection Protection Act to be tightened. Nonnemacher: “Currently I have hardly any means in hand to order a mask requirement in retail, indoors or access restrictions. We urgently need these instruments in order to be able to use them in a severe corona wave in autumn.”