The seven-day incidence peaked again on Thursday and is now 419.7 infections per 100,000 inhabitants within one week. The number of new infections transmitted within one day exceeded the threshold of 70,000 for the first time. According to the RKI, the health authorities reported 75,961 new corona cases in 24 hours.
According to the RKI, most of the corona deaths occurred last winter with more than 1000 reported cases per day. At the moment the death rate is much lower, although there are significantly more infections. The fact that fewer infected people are now dying is also due to the fact that large parts of the population are vaccinated – especially among older people, who are more prone to severe disease.
In order to keep the number of corona deaths permanently low, significantly more people in Germany would have to be vaccinated. If there is no progress, Germany will have to prepare for at least 100,000 more corona deaths “before the fairway calms down,” said the Berlin virologist Christian Drosten recently. “That’s a conservative estimate.” He derives the number by comparing it with the UK.
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According to the RKI, the statistics include deaths for which laboratory-confirmed corona evidence is available and who have died in relation to this infection. Accordingly, both people who died directly from the disease and those infected with previous illnesses for whom the cause of death cannot be conclusively determined are recorded.
Other countries report more deaths
Compared to other industrial nations, Germany is still comparatively well off in terms of the number of deaths, as data from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore shows. There are significantly more deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in France, Spain, Great Britain and Italy.
The USA has almost twice as many corona deaths per 100,000 inhabitants as Germany, and Bulgaria is more than three times as many. In contrast, in Denmark there are so far less than half as many corona deaths per 100,000 inhabitants as in Germany. However, it should be noted that the figures only allow comparisons to a limited extent due to the different reporting systems.
According to the Greens, the traffic light parties want to advise on stricter corona measures in Germany at the beginning of December. “We gave ourselves ten days to see if we are with the booster vaccinations, have we come far enough with the protective measures,” said Greens boss Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday evening on ARD. The new federal-state crisis team should take a close look at the situation on a daily basis. After these ten days, they will jointly analyze whether further measures are necessary.
In the fight against the fourth corona wave, the amended Infection Protection Act, initiated by the traffic light parties, came into force on Wednesday. The federal states still have the option of ordering or maintaining measures such as mask requirements, contact restrictions or bans on events.
Nationwide exit restrictions and school closings are no longer permitted tools. According to the previous plans, the law is to be reviewed on December 9th in a federal-state round and, if necessary, sharpened.
Politics calls for more speed
Leading Union politicians are pushing for a faster pace. The measures initiated would probably not be enough, said Union faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) on Wednesday evening on ARD. “We have to act intensively now.” The planned evaluation on December 9th was “much too late”. Previously, the Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) had called for a quick meeting of the state heads of government, preferably this week.
In order to avert bottlenecks, several dozen intensive care patients from hot spots in the south and east are to be relocated to other federal states by the weekend.
(Photo: dpa)
According to information from the German Press Agency, the Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had offered the leaders of the traffic light parties in the Chancellery on Tuesday evening to significantly tighten the measures in view of the threatened overload of the health system.
A legal emergency brake or clear lockdown agreements with the countries would be the obvious options, it said. The “Bild” reported that Merkel had already called for a lockdown from Thursday, the SPD, FDP and the Greens had rejected the proposal.
At the presentation of the coalition agreement between the SPD, Greens and SPD, the likely future Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced the establishment of a permanent federal-state crisis team in the Chancellery on Wednesday.
According to him, the body should start work before the traffic light government is in office. Scholz said in the evening on ARD: “It’s about organizing constant, professional monitoring of this situation.” It is important to have all the data available on a daily and weekly basis and to draw the necessary conclusions from it immediately.
In order to avert bottlenecks, several dozen intensive care patients from hot spots in the south and east are to be relocated to other federal states by the weekend. The federal and state governments want to discuss how to proceed this Thursday. For this purpose, a special video conference of the health ministers is scheduled.
The European Medicines Agency Ema wants to decide on Thursday on the approval of Biontech’s corona vaccine for children from the age of five. If the experts give the green light, the EU Commission still has to give its official approval – but this is a matter of form. In Germany, according to the outgoing Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU), 2.4 million doses of the vaccine would be available for children from December 20.
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