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The number of new corona infections in Germany remains at a high level: the RKI recently reported 21,866 cases. Health Minister Spahn is concerned about the high numbers and agrees with the ongoing restrictions.
The number of new corona infections in Germany has once again passed the 20,000 mark. As reported by the Rober Koch Institute, there were 21,866 new cases of infection in the last 24 hours. That’s about 3,400 more than the day before, when nearly 18,500 cases were reported. More recently, the numbers were below the 20,000 new infections mark for four days in a row.
According to the latest RKI figures, a total of 727,553 cases of infection have been recorded in Germany since the start of the pandemic. Health authorities also reported 215 new deaths related to the coronavirus. The total number of deaths rose to 11,982.
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 one for a long time, the infection process subsides.
Many intensive care patients
Health Minister Jens Spahn is concerned about the persistently high number of new infections. He fears that the number of corona patients in intensive care units will double this month. If there were 20,000 new people infected every day for a longer period of time and two percent of them would have to be treated in intensive care units for two weeks, their number would likely increase to more than 6,000 simultaneously in November, Spahn said. from the “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.
All winter restrictions?
Spahn expects crown restrictions to continue throughout the winter. Even if infection figures were down by the partial shutdown in November, that doesn’t mean things can really start over from December or January and there are wedding celebrations or Christmas parties again as if nothing happened, he says the politician from the CDU. RBB. “That’s why I already think the message is important: I will no longer see events with more than ten, 15 people (…) this winter.”
Virologist Ulrike Protzer also hopes that restrictions will continue to apply. The director of the Institute of Virology at the Technical University of Munich said in the ARD morning magazine, they assume this lasted until February. In view of the new increase in the number of new infections in Germany, he urged the population to constantly comply with the rules and wear masks to avoid further tightening of the measures.
Chancellor Angela Merkel already said yesterday that, in her view, the crown pandemic would continue to shape life in Germany in the coming months. In a statement in Berlin, Merkel made a 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.
