Ministry admits errors in controls
Despite the high incidence, carnival was celebrated in Cologne. Videos of inadequate corona controls are causing a stir on the Internet. Now the NRW Ministry of Health has admitted mistakes.
The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia has admitted errors in the controls of the vaccination and recovery records as part of the carnival opening on November 11th. The news portal watson reported on Saturday. According to this, the State Ministry for Labor, Health and Social Affairs (MAGS) announced on request that an individual body “did not have the controls 100% working”. Nevertheless, the city and the organizers would have done a good job overall, the portal quotes the ministry’s statement.
Meanwhile, the epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs criticized watson that the office roles for the 2G regulation were “obviously very sketchy”. “Major events should be canceled or postponed until next spring,” he demanded.
Private celebrations should be avoided
The start of the carnival took place under 2G conditions despite the sharp increase in the number of infections. As the MAGS announced, the regulation was chosen to prevent celebrations from being moved to private rooms, where they cannot be controlled. Ulrich does not find the explanation satisfactory. “Carnival itself and alcohol in particular are increasingly opposed to controls, so the state government’s declaration is a bit naive,” he explains.
A cancellation of the event would have been “a wrong signal” in reference to the federal government’s vaccination campaign, the ministry continues. Because one basis of the campaign is “the promise to be able to return to a normal life with the vaccination and to regain freedoms”, Watson quotes the ministry further.
The reasoning is correct and understandable, explains Ulrich. Nevertheless, the reason “given the exponential increase in the number of newly infected people, hospital admissions and intensive care bed occupancy is no longer appropriate,” said Ulrich. Therefore, the event should have been canceled or strict restrictions should have been communicated in good time, he concludes.