Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach warned against carelessness ahead of the planned lifting of corona restrictions in Germany. “The situation is objectively much worse than the mood,” the SPD politician said in Berlin on Friday, looking at the sharp rise in the number of infections. He described the situation as critical and took issue with general assessments that the omicron variant was milder. The variant could be deadly, affecting the unvaccinated, “but even those who are vaccinated can become seriously ill and develop long-term consequences.” And: “We cannot settle for a situation where 200 to 250 people die every day.” This is an intolerable situation to which we must react.
Incidence rises for the ninth day in a row
On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported an increase in seven-day incidence for the ninth day in a row to 1,439.0 new infections per 100,000 population over seven days. Health authorities reported 252,836 new cases in one day, and another 249 deaths were also recorded in 24 hours. For comparison: the day before the value was 1388.5. A week ago, the national incidence was 1,196.4 (previous month: 1,472.2).
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Restrictions are still possible
Therefore, the new version of the Infection Protection Act states that additional measures, such as masks and testing obligations, can be taken at hotspots, Lauterbach said. Hotspots could well be large areas and not just individual cities or regions. Such protective regulations could then “affect an entire federal state.” According to Lauterbach, action is taken when there is an outbreak.
In the new Infection Protection Act, which will be approved in the Bundestag next week, no specific limit value is mentioned for hotspots. This always depends on the current corona variant, so countries need wiggle room here. “There is no other way.” Countries should coordinate better. One hotspot is currently Colonia, which is probably related to carnival. As a result, operations that could be planned in the university clinic would have had to be postponed, for example.
“We need compulsory vaccination”
The president of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, said that around half of current Covid patients in intensive care units are over 70 years old. The omicron BA.2 subvariant, which is probably even more contagious, is also becoming increasingly popular internationally and already accounts for half of all infection cases in Germany. Lauterbach said that four scenarios are conceivable for the fall, which dominate the variants of the corona virus in Germany. In all scenarios, the general obligation to vaccinate discussed is necessary, since the coronavirus genome is 96 percent identical, regardless of the variant. “We absolutely need a general vaccination,” Lauterbach said. The arguments against him are scientifically incorrect. (dpa, Reuters AFP).
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