merkel s position is changed very dramatically. she has always said she was in favour of making vaccination mandatory and saying that it was up to the government to persuade its citizens to have the vaccine. i think she has been surprised at the take up, or the lack of take up in some parts of the country and i think she s really concerned about the rising case numbers and she seems to be in favour of such a mandate although we will have to wait for a vote in the german parliament and it s by no means certain that it will go ahead and if they do fluid in favour of it, we ll look at preps february as a date for that measure coming into force. . ~ ,, , a date for that measure coming into force. . ~ ,, , . a date for that measure coming into force. :, ,, i. , . ., , force. thank you very much and let s discuss that force. thank you very much and let s discuss that now. let s speak now to doctor catherine smallwood, senior emergencies officer for the world health organisation s regio
they re not quite at the peak they hit during the last wave, but all of the experts predict they will probably surpass it quite soon. and i wasjust watching some pictures before i came in showing some patients from intensive care units in saxony being transported by military aircraft to hospitals in other parts of the country because there s no longer room to treat them in some of the hospitals in that part of the country. so, the situation is very serious. i think the most striking announcement that we have, though, is the idea of this vaccine mandate. now, it s been discussed, it s very controversial of course. it s been in the media a lot in the last week or so. but angela merkel s position actually has changed very dramatically. she has always said she wasn t in favour of making vaccination mandatory, saying it was up to the government to persuade its citizens to have the vaccine. i think she s been surprised at the take up, the lack of take up in some part of the country. and i th