German Officials Differ On Easing Pandemic Restrictions

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Thursday (July 8, 2021) repeated his call for restrictions aimed at containing the coronavirus pandemic to be lifted within weeks once everyone in the country had received an invitation to be vaccinated, Michael Fischer, Valentin Frimmer and Antonia Hoffmann reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

"Once that is the case, there is no longer any justifiable reason to burden the general public with the restrictions they have faced in the past," Maas said while on a visit to the Luxembourg border. On Tuesday, Maas held out August as a date when restrictions could go, garnering support from across the political spectrum.

Health Minister Jens Spahn and Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht have expressed reservations. "I find naming dates at this point problematic," Spahn told national public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

Lambrecht came out in favor of retaining basic protective measures.

"Vaccination does not offer 100-percent protection against passing the virus on," she said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has also taken a consistently critical approach and was critical of the full stadia being seen in London during the closing games of the European football championships. But Maas insisted: "We have to learn to live with the virus."

The controversy broke out as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the official disease control body, said the more infectious Delta variant had taken over as the predominant strain.

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