German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, admitted on Friday that his hopes of introducing a general vaccine mandate in the country have effectively been quashed after the German parliament rejected the measure.
Even a watered-down measure for compulsory vaccination for those over 60 failed to garner enough support earlier, on Thursday in the Bundestag.
However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said that there was clearly no majority in parliament for a vaccine mandate, and that this fact had to form the basis for its approach to the issue.
Though Lauterbach, shortly after the vote had said that he would still strive to introduce a mandate, describing it as a matter of life and death for many people, on Friday admitted that the chances were slim.
He told broadcaster, Deutschlandfunks, that he “shared the view of Olaf Scholz that the chance of reaching some kind of result through talks is very limited.’’
The Bundestag vote revealed that a large majority of Free Democrats, the smallest partner in Scholz’s three-way coalition, opposed a vaccine mandate, and that there was no consensus within the body as a whole.
Meanwhile, the national disease institute, RKI, has revealed in its weekly report that it thought the latest wave of Coronavirus infections had now passed its peak.
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The seven-day rate of infection is on a downward trend.
But the numbers of daily deaths still remains high in Germany, regularly above 300.
