Spahn: Hard lockdown after Christmas makes sense

Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) has put people in Germany in the mood for a possible complete lockdown after Christmas. He couldn't think of a better time in the year to get down in society and reduce contacts, he said "Bild live". Because of the persistently high number of infections, it makes sense again to reduce "more extensive, but shorter" contacts and thus lower the number of infections. Spahn also repeated his expectation that vaccinations against the coronavirus could begin at the turn of the year, but no later than January. The virologist Christian Drosten, however, advocates a hard lockdown from December 24th. In addition, the schools should switch to split classes in the new year. "We absolutely have to do something in Germany now," says Drosten in the new episode of the NDR podcast "Coronavirus Update".