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RKI chief Wieler reported on the crown situation in Germany on Thursday morning. Despite the tightening of measures since the beginning of November, the number of cases remains high. “The number of serious cases will continue to increase and the number of deaths will also increase,” Wieler said. Both occur late. The virus is expected to spread uncontrollably in parts of Germany.
Wieler is “cautiously optimistic” on apparently weak growth. This shows that the virus can still be mastered. The thousands of people currently in quarantine are proof of the effectiveness of the health authorities.
Wieler points out that measures like mouth-to-nose masks, distance rules and regular ventilation will have to live for a while. Even if vaccine research is hopeful, it will take a significant portion of the population to get vaccinated.
According to the website, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recorded 21,866 new corona infections in 24 hours on Thursday morning. That’s nearly 3,400 more cases than Wednesday. Compared to Thursday of last week, an increase can also be observed: at this time, the number of new infections reported was 19,990. A peak was reached on Saturday with 23,399 registered cases.
The number of people who died as a result of Covid 19 disease increased by 215. This means that 11,982 have died since the outbreak of the pandemic in Germany. On Wednesday, that increase was 261 cases. In total, the RKI now has 727,553 infections; some 467,800 people are estimated to have recovered.
According to RKI’s situation report on Wednesday night, the so-called seven-day R was 0.89 (previous day: 0.92). This means that, in theory, 100 infected people infect 89 other people. The value represents the onset of the infection eight to 16 days ago. If it is below 1.0 for a long time, the infection process subsides.
Spahn: No more celebrations this winter
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn also expects severe restrictions due to the crown beyond current measures in November. “We have to manage together to get through this winter overall with lower numbers at a lower level,” the CDU politician said on RBB news radio on Thursday looking at the infection figures.
Watch events with more than 10 to 15 people, like Christmas parties or other socials “this winter.” If the number of infections decreases, “that does not mean that from December or January things can start again everywhere with wedding celebrations or Christmas parties as usual. The situation requires patience: “This virus has very long slip marks.”
In light of the current number of infections, Spahn fears that the number of corona patients in intensive care units will double this month. If 20,000 new people are infected every day for a longer period of time, and two percent of them have to be treated in intensive care units for two weeks, their number will likely increase to more than 6,000 at the same time in November. Spahn said. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “The numbers should not go up any more,” he emphasized. “If so, it is foreseeable that we will reach a point where the health system is overwhelmed.”
Doctors and nurses could deal with 6,000 corona patients in intensive care units, the minister said: “But only under great stress. So we have to gather all our strengths in hospitals.” Operations would have to be postponed again, operating room staff would have to help out in intensive care units.
NRW Health Minister: “A minister has never had to do that to vaccinate a whole town”
From the point of view of the North Rhine-Westphalia Health Minister, Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU), the upcoming mass corona vaccination will in some cases lead to supply bottlenecks. Supply could not be maintained as usual in all areas, he said in the Düsseldorf state parliament on Thursday. If doctors had to work in vaccination centers several times a week in the future, they would not be able to operate their offices to the normal extent at the same time.
Due to the infection situation, the vaccine staff can hardly be removed from hospitals, at least initially. Recruiting specialists from the state volunteer registry is “not easy” for this special task. In this sense, the demands of the SPD state opposition to present a personnel concept and a sophisticated vaccination strategy “immediately” are “pleasant to say,” Laumann said. “The staff you need for this enormous task are already in the healthcare system today.”
Laumann assured that NRW would, of course, take care of the necessary vaccination centers and logistics. However, “it would shake and cause trouble at such a massive event” https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/ “A minister has never had to do that to an entire town. Vaccinate” .
Approximately 3,000 schools are not in regular operation due to Corona
According to media reports, around 3,000 schools in Germany no longer teach in regular operations due to Corona. This is reported by the newspapers of the Funke media group, citing figures from 14 federal states. These are schools that no longer offer full face-to-face teaching. To put it in perspective: in Germany there are about 40,000 schools with a total of eleven million students and about 800,000 teachers.
In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, according to that country’s Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, students from 552 schools are quarantined by order of health authorities and receive digital education. In Bavaria there are no longer regular face-to-face classes in 255 schools and in 273 schools in Baden-Württemberg.
In Lower Saxony, individual classes or years were temporarily withdrawn from classroom teaching in 347 schools and sent to homeschooling. According to Funke, 221 colleges in the state teach in a so-called split-class alternate model, in which some of the students come to school and others learn at home. In Hamburg, 213 schools are no longer in full normal operation. In Thuringia, 109 schools are affected by the quarantine measures, in Rhineland-Palatinate 216, in Brandenburg 170 and in Saxony-Anhalt 120.
According to the report, schools in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are only partially present in 30 institutions, 71 in Schleswig-Holstein, 128 in Saarland and 170 in Saxony. 365 study groups have been closed in Berlin. According to Funke, Hesse and Bremen did not provide any information on how many schools teach partially or fully at a distance.
Two days of early Christmas vacation for schoolchildren at NRW
In North Rhine-Westphalia, students can start the Christmas break earlier than planned due to the corona pandemic. In order to allow families to have as carefree a Christmas as possible, the decision was made to release on December 21-22, NRW School Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP) told WDR.
So Friday, December 18, will be the last day of school this year at NRW. In the coming days he wants to clarify with teachers, parents and student associations how the absence can be compensated in the current school year and how emergency care can be guaranteed on December 21 and 22. In reality, winter break would have started on December 23.
The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet (CDU), had already brought the start of the winter school holidays in NRW by two days on Tuesday. The background of the considerations is that people should limit their contacts as much as possible a few days before Christmas so that there are no infections in family celebrations. With this idea, the minister spoke of a “pre quarantine” that she wanted to implement. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) commented positively on the considerations.
More than 300,000 schoolchildren in quarantine
According to a media report, the number of students and teachers in quarantine is increasing significantly across the country. How image reported citing the Association of German Teachers, more than 300,000 schoolchildren are currently in quarantine. At the end of September there were about 50,000. The association currently specifies the number of teachers in quarantine up to 30,000.
The result is more and more school closures, said the president of the Association of German Teachers, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, the newspaper: “We are now experiencing a closure of salami in schools.” The politicians have retired, now the health authorities would decide.
