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“The next three months will be by far the hardest.”
| Reading time: 2 minutes
“Stores have to close as soon as possible”
Health expert Karl Lauterbach calls for immediate and tough Corona measures across the country: “This is probably the most dangerous Christmas you can imagine,” Lauterbach said.
SPD health expert Lauterbach doubts that the goal of reducing the number of infections by January 10 will be achieved with the strict lockdown. When it comes to school lessons, appeal to the federal states. His forecast until Easter 2021 is bleak.
WORLD: Mr. Lauterbach, do you think the strict lockdown decided by the federal and state governments is enough?
Karl Lauterbach: That is the maximum we can currently decide. I have doubts that by January 10 we will achieve the goal of reducing the number of new infections to 50 per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days with these measures. I have to admit that. But, on the other hand, we can expect a very significant decrease in the number of infections with a waiting time. So decisions are not a minute too early.
WORLD: Resolutions on school lessons are very soft. Schools can remain open, only the attendance requirement is lifted. Do you agree?
Lauterbach: According to the resolutions you can be that some federal states continue instruction in the classroom and leave it to parents if children go to school and participate. That means there is a residual risk. It would be a wrong signal to endanger the parents. Therefore, I call on all federal states to completely suspend classroom teaching from Wednesday and offer emergency care.
WORLD: Due to the Infection Protection Act, restrictions may only apply for a four-week period. What will come after that?
Lauterbach: Resolutions will need to continue if we fail to reach the target incidence of 50. However, to do this, it must first be assessed in early January how the now agreed rules have worked. Speculating on this now would be doubtful.
WORLD: What will the population have to prepare for next year?
Lauterbach: The next three months will be by far the hardest months in the entire course of the pandemic. We will overcome the tough blockade and we will still have to be very careful afterwards. The pandemic would return immediately if we slowed down much after January 10. Therefore, we will have to keep parts of public life closed. Shared lessons will still need to be offered in schools, partly at school and partly digitally as homeschooling.
We are facing the toughest three months and vaccines will have little impact on that. Because in the first quarter we will only be able to vaccinate about five million people. This will have little impact on propagation and protection.
