Germany Records COVID-19 Infection Record: 200 Thousand Positive People In A Day, Vaccination Is Still A Debate

Illustration of COVID-19 in Germany. (Wikimedia Commons/Ralf Lotys)

JAKARTA - Germany recorded a record number of daily COVID-19 infections on Thursday, crossing the 200,000-case threshold for the first time, while vaccination obligations were still under debate.

The Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases reported 203,136 positive tests in the past 24 hours, 69,600 more cases than the same day a week ago.

The seven-day incidence per 100,000 people rose to 1,017 from 941 the previous day, while another 188 people died, bringing the death toll since the start of the pandemic to 117,314.

German lawmakers debated on Wednesday whether to introduce mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, while protesters gathered outside the parliament building.

About 75 percent of Germany's population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, lagging behind Western European counterparts such as France, Italy, or Spain, which have recorded around 80 percent, 83 percent, and 86 percent, respectively.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports mandatory vaccines for the population over 18, but his coalition government is divided on the issue and he has told lawmakers to vote according to their conscience.

German lawmakers discussed whether to make mandatory COVID-19 vaccines mandatory on Wednesday, as the country's new record daily COVID-19 infections and vaccination campaign stutters, forcing them into an ethical and constitutional dilemma.

Protesters stood in small groups around the Reichstag parliament building, surrounded by police, as politicians in the cross-party movement debated.

"Compulsory vaccination raises difficult and controversial legal and ethical questions", said Bundestag President Baerbel Bas, opening a debate in which more than 40 lawmakers will speak.

The three main proposals under consideration include requiring all adults to be vaccinated, or only those over 50, or only requiring all people who have never had an injection to receive counseling.

Details of the bill will be finalized after debate and the bill should be ready for a parliamentary vote in March.

Many lawmakers, including some of the coalition's junior partners, the liberal Free Democrats, oppose mandatory vaccines. They argue that requiring vaccination violates the second article of the German constitution, which guarantees citizens' control over their own bodies.

One protester carried a banner reading: "The constitution is a red line", and called the vaccine mandate a "scientific experiment", which Germany does not need.

Anna Gruenberg, a 23-year-old physiotherapist at the protest said she found the debate "totally disrespectful" to those who think differently about vaccines and viruses.

Meanwhile, Axel Schaefer, a lawmaker from the ruling Social Democratic Party who supports mandatory vaccines, compared the protests to opposition to mandatory smallpox vaccination 150 years ago.

"Experience at the time showed that with this mandatory vaccination against smallpox, we had saved millions of lives", he said.