Germany: As COVID cases rise, Tourism Commissioner says mandatory vaccines 'unavoidable'

Amid the rise in COVID-19 cases, Germany’s Tourism Commissioner Thomas Bareiss has anticipated that vaccination might become mandatory in the country. Bareiss highlighted that as the cases continue to increase, it is clear that the COVID-19 vaccine will become compulsory for people in the country, reported Sky News. He asserted that the decision would be “unavoidable” as the situation has been worsening in the country. 

Furthermore, Thomas Bareiss called the decision of not implementing the rule of making the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory from the beginning “wrong”, however, he added that the decision was “understandable” at that point in time. Speaking to German news agency DPA, Thomas Bareiss stated that the business, retailers, restaurants, clubs, cinemas etc have been suffering for the last 20 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic while some of the people “take the freedom not to vaccinate” against COVID-19, as per the Sky News report. 

Calls for making vaccine mandatory in Germany

Daniel Gunther, the Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein state, while speaking to Die Welt also raised similar concerns. Gunther said that they need to be prepared to implement receiving the COVID-19 vaccine as mandatory for people. He added that the lockdowns were not “appropriate” as they used to be during the time when the vaccines had not been developed against Coronavirus. Tilman Kuban, the head of the youth wing of the Christian Democratic Union also echoed similar thoughts. Kuban mentioned that they need to introduce compulsory vaccines for people and lockdown for the people who are not receiving vaccines. 

The calls for making vaccines compulsory comes days after lawmakers of the country approved new measures to control the spread of the virus, according to AP. According to new rules, employees need to show that they are vaccinated or have recently recovered from COVID-19 or have tested negative for the virus in order to access workplaces. The government has introduced similar measures for people using public transport. As per the Sky News report, the nationwide seven-day rate of COVID-19 infections currently stands at 362.2 per 100,000 population. Several states including Saxony have a much higher figure than the national average. 

COVID-19 situation in Germany

According to Worldometer, as of November 21, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Germany has reached 5,378,192. The total number of fatalities reported due to coronavirus is 99,613. The number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 in Germany is 4,649,300 and the active cases in the country stand at 629,279.

Inputs from AP

Image: AP/Representative