Sunday, January 3, 2021

Germany and Covid-19: 3 Jan 2021

 1.  Germany's top virologist (Drosten) came out in an interview (via Focus) and said in a blunt way....the first-half of 2021 is going to be fairly complicated.  He does agree that by summer, most of the restrictions/ban rules....will go away.  A hundred-percent life without any ban-rules?  No one suggests that.

2.  Fairly harsh criticism dumped by Bavaria's Soder on the EU.....that their vaccination procurement process was screwed-up.  This might be hyped up for a day or two, and part of discussions via public forums.

3.  The extreme lock-down status currently in place?  There's a discussion going on with the sixteen states.  A couple of the states have no problem going to 31 December.  It would appear likely that five to ten of the states will go to the ban list (existing since early December) and remove a couple of the rules.  

I would give odds that store-fronts will be open by the third-week of January, and restaurants open completely by early Feb...in at least five states.

4.  The state of NRW teacher association is demanding that teachers go to the front of the vaccination line (ASAP).  Whether the state will agree with them or not is unknown.

5.  The 116117 'hotline' for reservations to the vaccination is overloaded.  What the government says is that 1,100 employees are hired to work the phone-lines presently.

6.  There's a business report over at N-TV this morning....with the head guy of TUI (a major German tour company).  He says (more in a boastful way)....huge numbers are coming in the summer months as Germans make up for 2020, and plenty of cash will be spent on vacations here in 2021. 

He might be correct on this, but I think the bulk of German vacationers will aim at markets in Greece, Spain, Italy and Turkey.  I think almost all of these spots that you can fly to (particularly Australia and New Zealand) will require the vaccination and a pre-test to occur.  

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