German polls see majority in favour of tougher lockdown

The current Corona restrictions do not go far enough for half of Germans (48 percent). That is 16 percentage points more than in the previous survey in March. Some 24 percent think the measures are sufficient, another 24 percent think they are too extreme.

According to another survey by the YouGov opinion research institute, 56 percent of Germans are in favour of nationwide night-time curfews due to the increasing number of infections, reported the dpa news agency. Some 37 percent were against it and seven percent did not provide any information.

The approval or rejection of such measures, however, is strongly age-dependent. Among the 18 to 24-year-olds, 36 percent are in favour, while 66 percent of those over 55 consider such a ban to be sensible.

With the exception of AfD supporters, voters from all other parties think a night curfew is the right thing to do. At 71 percent, this was highest in the mainstream union, followed by supporters of the Greens (70 percent) and the SPD (69 percent). The majority of voters from the Left Party (60 percent) and FDP (53 percent) also support such a measure. The AfD supporters, on the other hand, are 56 percent against nocturnal bans.

Meanwhile, the virologist at the Berlin Charité, Christian Drosten, called on the government to act. “We will not get around a serious lockdown,” said Drosten told German weekly Spiegel.

“We saw in Paris and London that a partial lockdown with a graduated catalog of measures does not take effect against this more aggressive variant: the incidence there has continued to rise, as has the number of serious and often fatal courses of the disease.” There is still a chance of such avoid course in major German cities. But this now requires political action and the support of as many people as possible.”

Various Corona restrictions have been in effect in Germany since the beginning of November last year. Since then, they have been extended several times and in some cases tightened. Originally, the federal government wanted to impose an extensive total lockdown on Easter from Maundy Thursday up to and including Easter Monday. After massive criticism and protests, however, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) rowed back and apologized in public for the decision that she had largely initiated.

For this reason, too, the acceptance of the citizens for the Corona policy of the federal and state governments is currently falling rapidly. According to the Germany trend by Infratest Dimap on behalf of ARD and Die Welt, 79 percent of Germans are “less satisfied” or “not at all satisfied” with the way the government is dealing with the pandemic.

Of the 19 percent who are satisfied, on the other hand, only one percent is “very satisfied”. This means that approval fell by 23 percentage points within two months.

Due to the drop in satisfaction, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder is in favour of a short but hard lockdown. “We should consider whether another short but consequent lockdown would not be the better way than a half-hearted and endless Corona concept that has not really reduced the number of new infections,” he told German weekly Bild am Sonntag. “Better to be short and consistent than long back and forth.”

Anyone who is fully vaccinated against the Coronavirus can, according to Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), get certain freedoms back in the next few weeks. “Anyone who is vaccinated can go to the shop or the hairdresser without further testing. In addition, according to the RKI, completely vaccinated people no longer have to be in quarantine,” the CDU politician told the Bild am Sonntag.

According to the report, the basis is an evaluation of the latest scientific findings by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). In an RKI report to Spahn’s ministry, which was made available to the newspaper, it stated: “According to the current state of knowledge, the risk of virus transmission from people who have been fully vaccinated is less on the 15th day after administration of the second vaccination dose at the latest in the case of a negative rapid antigen test in asymptomatic infected persons.”

The head of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, was vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine on Saturday. The Robert Koch Institute announced on Twitter that he was “happy” about the vaccination and thanked employees of the vaccination hotline and vaccination center. The spokesman for the federal government, Steffen Seibert, was also vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Berlin.

In Berlin, after it was halted for younger people, the vaccine from AstraZeneca has also been administered to people aged 60 to 70 in recent days. Apart from AstraZeneca, no other vaccine is currently available for this group.

#RKI Präsident Wieler hat sich heute mit dem #AstraZeneca-Impfstoff impfen lassen. Über die Impfhotline 030/9028-2200 können jetzt alle Berliner*innen über 60ig auch ohne Impfeinladung AstraZeneca-Impftermine buchen.​#Impfenschützt #Covid19Impfung pic.twitter.com/gRxVbG6Yxn

— RKI für Euch (@RKI_fuer_Euch) April 3, 2021