It was Health Minister Spahn’s last Corona situation press conference.
(Photo: Reuters)
Berlin The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, warns of the impression that the trend of increasing numbers of infections in Germany has broken. “On the contrary,” said Wieler on Friday at the last joint press conference with the still incumbent Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn in Berlin.
The outgoing minister painted a gloomy picture with a view to the upcoming holidays. Even if the latest measures were implemented immediately and the number of infections could now be reduced, the situation in the intensive care units will “reach its sad climax around Christmas,” said Spahn.
Wieler emphasized that it was “far too early” for a trend reversal. The daily reported numbers of new infections are still far too high for that. Currently, more than one percent of the population is acutely infected, 4800 Covid patients are in intensive care units, and deaths have increased significantly.
In addition, he estimated the under-reporting of new infections to a factor of two to three. In particularly polluted regions, the health authorities would no longer keep up with the registration of the cases.
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There are also bottlenecks in the evaluation of the PCR tests in laboratories. The new Corona variant Omikron, which cannot yet be assessed, has now burst into this emergency. What is certain is that the mutant has arrived in Germany and could be even more contagious than the Delta variant.
Spahn wants against compulsory vaccination
For Friday, the RKI reported 74,352 new infections within 24 hours. That is 2062 fewer cases than on Friday a week ago. The seven-day incidence rose again to 442.1 from 439.2 on Thursday.
The value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants have been infected with the corona virus in the past seven days. 390 other people died related to the virus. This increases the number of reported deaths within one day to 102,568. In total, more than six million corona tests have so far been positive in Germany.
>> Read here Which corona measures the federal and state governments have agreed on
According to Spahns, sufficient vaccine is available for the planned 30 million booster vaccinations by Christmas. Since the Prime Minister’s Conference on November 18, ten million of the 55 million vaccinated adults have already received a booster vaccination.
At the same time, Spahn made it clear that he would vote against a general vaccination requirement in the Bundestag. He had a “fundamentally very skeptical attitude” on this issue and repeated his word that such a general vaccination obligation would not come. “That will also determine my voting behavior.” At the same time, however, he was “very clear” in the address. Vaccination is the only way out of the pandemic.
More: Spahn secures Germany’s covid drug Lagevrio from Merck – first delivery in December