Drosten warns of significant loss of work due to Corona in winter.
(Photo: IMAGO/Jens Schicke)
Berlin The virologist Christian Drosten expects a “strong wave of incidence” of corona infections “before December”. New virus variants are still causing many new cases of illness, the director of virology at the Berlin Charité warned in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
Even in the case of mild illnesses, this will probably lead to significant absences from work. “Infected people may not go to the hospital, but very many are sick for a week.
If there are too many at once, it becomes a problem,” said Drosten. That is why politicians must make better preparations.
“Before so many people get sick that you can no longer buy anything, that the hospitals no longer work or there are no police officers at the station, you have to take measures,” Drosten told the “SZ”. He called on politicians to work towards a consensus now, “on which signals you want to act and how”.
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Because “in an emergency, immediate and quite drastic decisions are needed”. Drosten expects, among other things, that wearing a mask indoors will become necessary again.
He also advised the economy to prepare for a wave of illness with deputy regulations and team building. “I also assume that there will definitely be companies that have to close for two weeks.”
Lauterbach: “Very well prepared for all scenarios”
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach also expects an autumn wave, but only a “moderate one”. In the “Rheinische Post”, the SPD politician was confident that the government is “very well prepared for all scenarios”.
“We will keep the corona wave under control this year,” said Lauterbach, referring to the new Infection Protection Act, which, among other things, prohibits the wearing of FFP2 masks “on buses and trains, in long-distance transport, in clinics and care facilities and in doctor’s offices”. foresee.
The federal government will keep the corona wave under control this year.
(Photo: IMAGO/Future Image)
He referred to Drosten’s interview on Twitter on Saturday morning and also mentioned “upper limits in the interior” as a protective measure, which the federal states can set if necessary.
“We no longer need to close schools or the hospitality industry,” the minister said. Lockdowns are also “no longer justifiable”, unless there is a pandemic situation again. “But I don’t see the danger,” said Lauterbach.
Member of the Corona Expert Council sees reason for optimism
According to the Greifswald Corona expert Lars Kaderali, there is reason for optimism after the Corona summer wave with a view to the winter. In the past few months, many people have been immunized through contact with the virus.
“That’s a good thing. That helps us in winter,” said Kaderali, who is a member of the federal government’s Corona Expert Council, of the German Press Agency.
“We roughly estimate that every third to every fourth person has had contact with Corona in the summer.” The number of infections has fallen without any special measures being taken.
“That just means the virus really got through.” Also, for the first time after the end of the vacation, there was no significant increase in infections in the general population.
>> Read here: These Corona rules should Germany apply from October
Because of the broader immunity in addition to vaccinations, the bioinformatician expects that the winter wave will not be too severe, at least as long as no completely new variant appears. He also does not expect an early renewed increase in infections. He rather assumes that the infection rate will remain at the current level for a long time or possibly even decrease a little.
It is difficult to predict what will happen in the spring of next year, for example whether a new variant will come. “It also looks at the moment as if the virus we are dealing with will continue to be omicron.”
There is no completely new virus on the horizon in other countries either. This also leads him to the currently rather positive assessment.
That doesn’t mean that there won’t be high numbers of infections in winter. However, he does not expect dramatic patient numbers in the hospitals. “And I also expect that this wave will come later than we have had in recent years due to the many infections that have gone through in the summer.”
More: All developments regarding the corona pandemic in our live blog