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A slight decline in new infections, hope for a vaccine, and yet the federal government, especially Chancellor Merkel, is warning against breathing too soon. Fighting the pandemic will require perseverance.
From Chancellor Angela Merkel’s perspective, the crown pandemic will continue to shape life in Germany for months to come. CDU policy assumes it will “keep us busy all winter.”
In a statement in Berlin, Merkel drew the comparison with the Spanish flu “about 100 years ago.” As was the case then, it must now be assumed “that the second wave is tougher.” Also, the second wave Corona falls “in a bad season.” Now there are “positive messages about vaccine development.” But this “will not yet have a serious impact” in the winter months, so it is still necessary to continue to observe precautionary measures against the spread of the virus.
In the morning, the EU Commission approved the framework agreement, which provides for the EU to sell 300 million doses of the potential corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer.
“That’s not enough”
Before Merkel, the federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, had also emphasized in an interview with the RTL and n-tv stations that it was too early to speak of a turnaround in the pandemic, even if the dynamics of the infection process it had been “significantly reduced” in recent days. . “That’s encouraging at first, but it’s not enough,” Spahn said.
In addition to the CDU minister, Lieutenant Governor Ulrike Demmer emphasized that the number of cases will continue to “reach a very, very high level” and will increase in all federal states and in all age groups.
The number of new infections across the country remains high. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) spoke in the morning of 18,487 additional infections and 261 deaths in connection with a corona infection. However, compared to the high number of new infections in 24 hours, there was a decrease: On Saturday, the institute reported 23,399 new cases in one day, more than ever since the pandemic reached Germany.
Fewer intensive care beds are available
As the number of cases continues, the situation in hospitals also becomes more critical. This is also reflected in the figures of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI). The association records the beds available in intensive care units reported by the clinics in a registry. The number of free beds is decreasing day by day: according to DIVI, there are 85 fewer intensive care beds available nationwide, with 6,720 beds free as of yesterday. Around 3,140 beds are currently occupied by patients suffering from Covid 19 disease. At 57 percent, more than half of these patients have to be artificially ventilated.
If the number of cases remains at the current high level, Federal Health Minister Spahn expects that more than 6,000 intensive care patients will have to be treated in clinics during the month. Doctors and nurses could handle this, but only under “very great stress,” said Spahn of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.” However, if the workload is even higher, there is a risk that the healthcare system will be overloaded.
US Study See Locations of “Super Processors” in Restaurants
The RKI cautions that it is now difficult to understand where infected people have contracted the virus. As reported by Deutschlandfunk, the institute wants to use a survey of people who have been infected to better clarify where the risk of infection may be particularly high.
In the United States, researchers at Stanford University in California have already addressed this question. In a study conducted between March and May in ten metropolitan regions such as New York or Los Angeles, the behavior of around 98 million people was examined using data from their mobile phones. This also included where and how long they stayed. The study, which was published in the journal “Nature”, assigns a function called superpreader to certain places such as restaurants, cafes, but also gyms or hardware stores. Therefore, there is a high probability that many affected people have been infected with the virus.
It is not clear to what extent the figures from the US study can also be applied to the situation in Germany. But it is precisely the risk factors such as visits to restaurants or cultural institutions that the federal government, together with the prime ministers of the federal states, wants to curb through the partial closure of this month. Since the beginning of the month, gastronomy and culture have had to face a new stagnation. Early next week, the federal government and state leaders intend to assess whether the stricter protections are already having an initial effect.
