Coronavirus News on Monday: Key Developments on Sars-Cov-2 and Covid-19

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University association demands bonus in case of poor A-level results

01.17: The German University Association is calling for a grade bonus in case this year’s Abitur should be worse than the average in recent years as a result of the Coron crisis. “There must be no disadvantage for the Abitur year 2020,” said association president Bernhard Kempen of the Funke media group. The special conditions under which the Abitur takes place this year must be taken into account. The coronavirus should not devalue the CV of an entire year. Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek had already presented such an approach.

“If the performance of the students is significantly worse than the average in recent years, then I expect a disadvantage compensation,” Kempen said. “Anything else would be unfair.” For example, if the 2020 A-level grades were on average 0.4 or 0.5 points worse, students would have to receive a bonus. For this purpose, it was not necessary to change the Abitur certificates. “It would be conceivable, for example, that universities would provide a reasonable bonus for restricted subjects.” To this end, the Länder and the university rectors would have to agree on a uniform regulation throughout Germany.

US Vice President Pence in self-isolation

1:03 a.m.: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence went into self-isolation after a White House aide tested positive for the corona virus, bloomberg and AP news outlets report, citing a statement from Pence’s spokesman Devin O’Malley. Pence’s initial tests were therefore negative.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced that Pence’s spokeswoman, Katie Miller, had tested positive for the virus. Trump said he hadnot been in contact with Miller, but Pence did. The speaker is also married to senior White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Previously, prominent US government adviser and immunologist Anthony Fauci had gone into quarantine. However, this was a low-risk contact, Fauci told CNN.

MPs warn against radicalisation of Corona protests

00.24: After the nationwide protests against the restrictions in the Corona crisis, MPs have warned against radicalizing the protest. “In a democracy, it is legitimate and self-evident to question measures and express displeasure,” Deputy Green Group leader Konstantin von Notz told Die Welt. “But there are all those who fundamentally question the system and think politicians as puppets of George Soros and Bill Gates as a whole.”

The SPD’s interior minister, Ute Vogt, spoke of a “found fodder for the right.” They tried to exploit the dissatisfaction with the conditions in the Corona crisis, she told the newspaper. The chairman of the Conference of Interior Ministers, Georg Maier (SPD), recalled the racially motivated attack in Hanau. “We saw in Hanau that one person killed others because he was radicalized by conspiracy theories, among other things,” he said.

Spahn calls for consistent action on the ground

00.11: Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) has called on the authorities in states and municipalities to take a consistent approach to the fight against the coronavirus. “We need the courageous, comprehensive approach on the ground,” Spahn told ZDF’s “today’s journal.” It is very important to quickly understand all infections and isolate contact persons. Only if immediate action is taken in the counties can the figures be prevented from rising again nationwide.

Last week, the federal government gave the states broadly a free hand to relax the Corona requirements. However, a kind of emergency mechanism has been agreed: strict restrictions will apply again in the region concerned if more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants are registered within a week.

In the meantime, five places in Germany are known where this upper limit is exceeded: the city of Rosenheim in Bavaria, the districts of Greiz and Sonneburg in Thuringia, Coesfeld in North Rhine-Westphalia and Steinburg in Schleswig-Holstein.

Justice Minister Lambrecht: Better justifying Corona restrictions

00.01: Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) has called on policymakers to better justify restrictions on fundamental rights in the fight against the Corona pandemic. It is important to listen to citizens’ concerns and concerns about the restrictions “and not simply dismiss them,” Lambrecht said in the ARD report from Berlin. Justifying the measures against the pandemic is “a task that we must do even more”.

At the same time, the SPD politician defended the current restrictions. It’s not about “taking away someone’s freedom, it’s still about protecting health and life,” she said. “And we have now achieved not to squanon it lightly.”

The Minister of Justice stressed in the ARD that the current restrictions on fundamental rights are limited in time and that the State must not maintain them for longer than is strictly necessary. She said she was “happy that meetings are now possible again” – “especially at such a difficult time.”