All about Germany’s 3G rule
Other than the elections to elect a new government, most of the talk in Germany is centered around 3G or 2G. No, it is not bandwidth or wavelength that is being talked about but mandatory Corona rules. Since last month 3G rule has been mandatory nationwide: it means anyone who wants to enter certain public spaces in Germany must be vaccinated, recovered or tested. The so-called “3G rule” with the three gs geimpft, genesen, getestet or (vaccinated, recovered or tested) has seen me whip out my phone and show my vaccine status at school parents meeting, museums, old peoples homes and pubs.
Vaccination drive in Germany
More than 62 per cent of the population in Germany is completely vaccinated according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s top agency for infectious diseases, but that is a far cry from the vaccination rate of 85 per cent that is required to weather the uptake in infections of the highly contagious delta variant in winter. And so to convince the vaccine sceptics and doubters and build up more pressure on them to take the vaccinations some state governments are shifting from 3G to 2G. The implementation or threat of implementation of 2G(vaccinated and recovered) means that more and more open public spaces are closed to the non-vaccinated. Public spaces are as yet open to the non-vaccinated- they just had to show a negative Corona rapid test result. But from next month onwards Germany is more or less getting rid of its taxpayer-funded free rapid tests.
It was relatively easy till now to queue in at one of these rapid test centres, get a negative result and enjoy the freedom that the vaccinated or recovered enjoy. That won’t be the case for much longer as the state tries to build up pressure on vaccine skeptics and gets rid of the taxpayer-funded free rapid tests. Unlike some other European countries, the German state has not made vaccination mandatory but is trying to build up pressure on the Corona doubters and skeptics to get vaccinated. And is need to build up the pressure as the vaccination rates are stagnating and are much lower than other western European countries like Denmark where 83 per cent are vaccinated.
As autumn rolls on the number of Corona patients in intensive care are also going up, with most of the patients admitted being unvaccinated. The German Health Minister Jens Spahn of the ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) even warned of the danger of a „pandemic of the unvaccinated“ that awaits the country in winter, he also announced a nationwide action week for vaccinations. There are plans to offer vaccinations on trains, in pedestrian zones and on sports fields.
Different cities have also joined the drive, with `Impfbus`(vaccinebus) stationed outside schools offering schoolchildren above 12 years a chance to get vaccinated.
Last week, Deutsche Bahn, which operates Berlin‘s circle line trains, offered passengers the chance to get vaccinated with the single-dose coronavirus vaccine of Johnson&Johnson on their rides. Here is hoping that vaccine rates go up and the new government which will be elected in the last week of September won’t have to wage a fight against a fourth-wave of Corona in the coming winter months but can focus its energies on other pressing problems.