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On the SZ podcast, SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil mentions ideas put forward by Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) to achieve more freedom for those who have been vaccinated. To the point “an inopportune debate.” As long as there are not enough vaccines and not everyone has the opportunity to vaccinate, this divides society.
It is clear that vaccines would lead to a normalization of life. “Vaccination is the solution. There has to be real speed.” Klingbeil was “extremely skeptical” of new measures to contain the corona pandemic, such as complete restrictions on local public transport or curfews.
However, he is concerned that the quota for the central office is currently only “about 14, 15, 16 percent,” in contrast to about a third in the first spring close. Klingbeil criticized the “presence on many executive floors.”
Germany wants to look better for virus mutations
The Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, has explained how Germany wants to be attentive to the mutations of the coronavirus in the future. Consequently, the federal government wants to make more funds available and create financial incentives for laboratories to carry out more genome sequencing. In addition, data from analyzes should be better grouped and collected centrally at the Robert Koch Institute.
“That’s not enough in the current situation,” Spahn said of the previous regulations. The decision was made to “give massive support” to the necessary investigations, according to Spahn. Laboratories receive € 220 per sample for additional work and reporting of data. “It is anticipated that up to an average daily number of cases of 10,000 Sars-CoV-2 infections, up to ten percent of the samples obtained as positive, can be sent from the laboratories that perform primary diagnoses to the sequencing facilities. daily average If the number of cases is 10,000, this percentage should be reduced to five percent, “says the regulation. The labs were motivated to look for abnormalities retrospectively, Spahn said.
In the ARD “Morgenmagazin”, Spahn explained in advance why other countries were already more active in this area. Denmark and Great Britain have a different tradition in Europe when it comes to these screening methods, the health minister said. In Germany, too, there are already networks that are busy with this. “But what we are doing now is making it more binding and comprehensive,” Spahn added.
Cases of virus mutation discovered in Britain that have occurred so far in Germany have always had “contact with Great Britain,” Spahn said. This shows that entry restrictions and contact tracing are a good tool in the fight against these virus variants, which are considered considerably more contagious than previously known viruses.
There are always mutations in the virus, more recently a new variant was discovered at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Clinic. “Scare tactics would be absolutely dubious and inappropriate,” he quotes. Munich Mercury Frank Niederbühl, managing director of the clinic. “The fact that it is a new variant does not mean that it is more infectious.” Since the start of the pandemic, more than 12,000 changes have been found in the virus sequences worldwide.
It is encouraging to see that contact restrictions can make a difference and give the infection process the right direction, Spahn said generally of the current state of the pandemic. The numbers would likely drop, but the task now is to continue efforts so that the infection process can be better traced again, Spahn said. It’s good to enforce stricter rules for the next two, three, or four weeks so that you can move on to perspective afterward. Tomorrow it will have to be shown exactly how the lockdown will be extended in discussions between heads of state and the federal government, including experts.
At the press conference, Spahn once again referred to the bottlenecks announced in the delivery of the US company Pfizer for its vaccine developed with Biontech. Pfizer itself announced on Friday that it would expect to restrict vaccine deliveries in Europe in the coming weeks. Measures to increase production at the Puurs plant in Belgium “would temporarily affect deliveries from late January to early February.” Spahn said: “We expressly expect the promised deliveries, delivery dates and delivery quantities to be maintained.” In particular, Friday’s “very, very short” report on the problems was “sad,” the minister said. The goal of increasing production capacity was welcome, but the short-term information on temporary cuts was not.
Police dissolve services in Berlin with more than 170 people
A church service in a small Berlin community with more than 170 people has been canceled in the capital due to massive violations of Corona rules. In a parish hall in the Gesundbrunnen district, police found 170 adults and other children on Sunday night around 7.45pm, a police spokeswoman said. People hadn’t donned masks or kept their distance. A hygiene concept and attendance lists were also lacking.
The pastor said that a small church service had actually been planned, but then the number of visitors increased. The police filed charges for administrative crimes against more than 100 people. Just on Saturday night the Berlin police put an end to a wedding celebration with 60 people in close proximity.
Scholz speaks in favor of a longer and more precise lockdown
Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke in favor of a longer and stricter lockdown ahead of the federal and state crown summit on Tuesday. “More measures must be taken,” the SPD politician said Sunday night in image-Talk “The Right Questions” https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/. “I assume this may already be 14 days to be added again.” The finance minister did not want to rule out the possibility of curfews: “I think this is a possible measure, but not the first.”
Scholz rejected the demand of his cabinet and party colleague, Heiko Maas, for more freedom for vaccinated people. “Personally, I am very cautious. I think this is not the time,” said the finance minister. Foreign Minister Maas had asked that people who had been vaccinated be able to exercise their basic rights again. Scholz contradicted this: “I think we have to have a feeling of solidarity.” He thinks that this debate “is not so practical at all.” If many Germans were vaccinated, the restrictions would also have a less negative effect.
Both the SPD-led Ministry of Justice and the CDU-led Ministry of Health had previously rejected Maas’s initiative. He had spoken out in favor of people being able to visit restaurants or cinemas before the rest of the population after the corona vaccination.
RKI reports 7141 new infected people and 214 more deaths
German health authorities reported 7,141 new corona infections to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in one day. According to the RKI, this is the lowest number of new infections since October 20. In addition, 214 new deaths were recorded in 24 hours, as announced by the RKI on Monday morning. It hasn’t been this low since December 14. However, the number of registered cases is usually lower on Mondays, in part because fewer tests are done on weekends. Exactly a week ago, the RKI had registered 12,497 new infections and 343 new deaths in 24 hours.
However, the Reuters news agency reports that Monday’s figures may be incomplete. The reason for the few reports from Bavaria or Rhineland-Palatinate is currently under examination, a spokeswoman for the institute said in the morning. It is remarkable that Bavaria has only reported around 270 cases after having surpassed 2000 on Monday a week ago. There were only two from Rhineland-Palatinate. Schleswig-Holstein also reported remarkably low numbers.
“After a sharp increase in the number of cases in early December, a decrease during the holidays and a renewed increase in the first week of January, the number of cases appears to stabilize again,” the RKI wrote in its management report on Sunday night. The maximum of 1,244 new deaths was reached on Thursday. For new infections registered within 24 hours, the highest value was reported on December 18, at 33,777, but it contained 3,500 late reports.
The number of new infections reported in seven days per 100,000 residents (seven-day incidence) was 134.4 on Monday morning, according to the RKI. Its previous high was reached on December 22 at 197.6. The number fluctuated after that and has been dropping again for a few days. However, the differences between federal states are currently huge: Thuringia has the highest incidences with 274.2 and Saxony with 244.9. Bremen has the lowest value with 86.6.
The RKI has counted 2,040,659 infections detected with Sars-CoV-2 in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected. The total number of people who died with or with the participation of a proven Sars-CoV-2 infection rose to 46,633. The RKI indicated that the number of recovered people was around 1,691,700.
According to RKI’s situation report on Sunday night, the national seven-day R-value was 0.93 (previous day: 0.95). This means that 100 infected people infect 93 other people. The value represents the onset of the infection eight to 16 days ago. If it is below the value of 1.0 for a long time, the infection process subsides.
Health Minister Jens Spahn said in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” that the number of new infections was still too high. There is also a slight relaxation in intensive care units with 10 to 15 percent fewer corona intensive care patients, “but we are still far from where we want to be,” he added, also referring to the risk of spreading mutations in the virus. which are considered more infectious. “So it makes sense to reduce the numbers as much as possible.” Spahn said upcoming talks between heads of country and the federal government tomorrow on an extension and tightening of the shutdown will also address the question of how work at the head office could be expanded. However, in the case of lockdown, the question is whether new rules are needed or whether there is a need to increase awareness of existing regulations.
