Lauterbach warns that without further protective measures, staff in the clinics would also be absent.
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
Berlin The summer wave is not over yet, and concerns about even more infections in autumn are growing: Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach fears a “catastrophic” corona development if no suitable measures to combat the virus are decided before autumn.
“If we went into autumn like we are now, without further protective measures, without masks, without anything, then that would mean that the number of cases would rise sharply, but the intensive care units would also be overloaded,” said the SPD politician on Thursday ( local time) during a visit to the US capital Washington by the German Press Agency.
He warned that staff in the clinics would then also be absent. “It’s like a candle burning at both ends,” Lauterbach said. The staff burn away downstairs and the patients upstairs.
Talks are currently underway between Lauterbach’s ministry and the house of Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) about the corona measures that should be possible in the future in the fight against the pandemic. The legal basis for the now severely restricted rules expires in September. At the same time, an increase in the number of infections is feared in the colder season.
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Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) is pushing for speed: Buschmann and Lauterbach should finally come to a conclusion, he demanded on Friday. “We don’t need the new regulations on September 22, but much earlier.” The federal states needed clarity in good time in order to be able to prepare well for the autumn and to be able to communicate the new regulations.
No all-clear regarding the summer wave
Within the traffic light government, the FDP is the brakeman when it comes to corona protection measures. Buschmann had promised last week that a mask requirement could come back. At the same time, he emphasized that there should be no more lockdowns, no “blanket school closures” and no more curfews.
Holetschek demanded that Lauterbach “should not be ripped off by the FDP”. “We need a toolbox of measures that prepares us for all scenarios, including unfavorable ones,” he explained.
The chairman of the board of directors of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, called for “clear parameters” in the Infection Protection Act, but partially rejected Lauterbach’s warnings. “In the end, measures are only needed if a virus variant that has been proven to be more dangerous appears and, as a result, the number of seriously ill people increases significantly and there is a risk of overcrowding in the intensive care units. Otherwise not,” said Gassen of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ).
In his opinion, for such an emergency, there should be a ban on events in the “instrument box” of the federal states. In addition, a time and location-limited mask requirement for public transport and retail could also help. “There are currently no signs of the “killer mutant” feared by Mr. Lauterbach, which is as contagious as Omicron and as dangerous as Delta,” Gassen told the newspaper.
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With a view to the ongoing wave of corona infections in the summer, experts are not giving the all-clear: “The wave has not yet broken,” said Ulf Dittmer, head of the Institute for Virology at the University Hospital Essen.
Despite the high summer temperatures, the nationwide seven-day incidence of detected infections rose again in the past week, writes the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in its weekly report. “The increase mainly affected federal states in the middle and south of the country, and especially the age groups from 70 years.” According to the RKI, the week before, the incidence had remained largely unchanged.
Experts assume that there are many unrecorded infections
According to the RKI, the nationwide incidence on Friday was 729.3 (previous week: 719.2; previous month: 488.7). However, this information only provides a very incomplete picture of the number of infections: For some time now, experts have been assuming that there is a high number of cases not recorded by the RKI – mainly because by far not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to the distortion of individual daily values.
In modeling by a team of experts led by Kai Nagel from the TU Berlin, a dampening of the summer wave can be observed due to the school holidays. For the time after the holidays, however, the model assumes that the BA.5 wave will be boosted again by travelers returning and the start of school.
Read more Handelsblatt articles on the corona pandemic here
The number of people who have to be treated in an intensive care unit with Covid-19 has been increasing again for a few weeks. As of Wednesday, their number was 1330, writes the RKI, citing figures from the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI). A week earlier it was 1238. The number of deaths has also increased, but so far only slightly.
According to the RKI, the situation on the normal wards in the hospital is currently relatively stable. In the past week there were a total of 3,300 new hospital admissions due to a severe respiratory infection and Covid-19. Previously there were 3100. Old people over the age of 80 are still most affected by severe illnesses.
More: Read the latest developments on the pandemic in the news blog.