BERLIN (Reuters) – The parties holding talks on forming Germany’s next government have agreed to tighten care home’s protection from the coronavirus by introducing a daily test requirement for visitors and staff, but stopped short of making vaccination compulsory.
Senior Greens legislator Kathrin Goering-Eckardt said she personally would have wanted to discuss compuslory vaccination, highlighting a dividing line within the would-be government between her party and the Social Democrats on the one hand, and the more libertarian-leaning Free Democratas on the other.
“There is no agreemnet on a vaccine obligation,” she told reporters on Monday. “I personally think we should discuss this.”
Surging infection rates across Europe have led many countries to reimpose lockdown measures and tighten up on test and vaccination rules. German regional leaders are due to discuss their next steps on Thursday.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Riham Alkousaa)
