Here is more on that announcement from the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, Jon Henley.
Vaccination could become mandatory in Germany from February, with tough extra restrictions also applying to people who are unvaccinated, the country’s outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, has announced.
Merkel, who met Germany’s 16 state leaders on Thursday with her successor, Olaf Scholz, for emergency talks on tougher measures to stem rocketing Covid cases, said the situation was “very serious” and an “act of national solidarity” was required.
She said Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, would first vote on the proposed vaccine mandate, with the country’s ethics council due to issue formal guidance by the end of the year, and the rule – if passed – coming into force from February.
The move would follow the example of neighbouring Austria, which is planning mandatory vaccinations from February. Greece has also announced mandatory jabs for the over 60s, with unvaccinated people facing fines if they fail to comply.
New daily infections in Germany have broken records in recent weeks, with many hospitals operating at or over capacity and forced to send patients elsewhere for treatment. Authorities said 73,209 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours.
Experts have blamed the fourth wave on the country’s relatively low vaccination rate of around 68% compared with several other EU countries such as Spain, which has fully vaccinated 79% of its population, and Portugal, which is 86% vaccinated.
Merkel’s outgoing government had previously ruled out mandatory vaccination, but the measure has since won broad political backing. “We don’t have enough vaccinated people,” Scholz said after the meeting. “We now know that this has consequences.”
Read the full report here: Germany could make Covid vaccination mandatory, says Merkel
