Berlin The idyll at Lake Constance is deceptive. In Lindau, where the federal and state health ministers have been meeting since Thursday afternoon, it will be decided during these hours which additional measures Germany will take to counter the fourth wave.
Politicians stared at the increasing number of cases for a long time, now they want to act: with more tests, more vaccinations and stricter measures. The health ministers want to announce possible resolutions at noon. An overview of the most important topics.
Politicians and authorities are back in alarm mode. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) classified the risk for incompletely or not vaccinated people from “high” to “very high” in its weekly report on Thursday.
The current development of the situation is “very worrying”, writes the RKI. If measures such as masks, spacing, reducing contacts and ventilation do not quickly reduce the number of infections, a further increase in serious illnesses and deaths is to be feared. According to the report, the treatment capacities of the intensive care units could also be exceeded in this case.
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The nationwide seven-day incidence of the current wave of infections has now exceeded the high of the third corona wave in spring. On April 26, it was 169.3; for yesterday, Thursday, the RKI reported an incidence of 169.9. The highest value of the incidence in the entire pandemic was in the second wave at the end of December 2020 with an incidence of 197.6.
The hospitalization rate also rose to 3.73. It indicates how many corona patients per 100,000 inhabitants have to be treated in the hospital. The value is considered a crucial indicator of the pandemic. The peak was also over 15 at the end of December 2020.
Testing more in retirement and nursing homes
Politicians are alarmed over new fatal outbreaks in nursing homes. The dramatic experiences from last autumn and winter should not be repeated, they say in unison.
The health ministers therefore want to advise on compulsory testing in old people’s and nursing homes. A draft resolution of the Federal Ministry of Health stipulates that employees must be tested at least twice a week regardless of their vaccination status. Visitors would also have to be tested – even if they are already fully vaccinated.
“I will advertise that we introduce compulsory testing in old people’s and nursing homes by federal law,” said the acting Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) on Thursday evening on ARD.
It is incomprehensible to him that people who work with sick people and those in need of care “unnecessarily put them at risk” if they do not get themselves vaccinated. On the other hand, he is “very cautious” about a general vaccination requirement.
More booster vaccinations
Progress with third-party vaccinations could play a central role in the fight against the fourth wave. Experts largely agree that vaccination protection decreases rapidly after six months, especially in older people. This is already evident in the intensive care units. According to the RKI weekly report, almost 45 percent of the over 60-year-olds were fully vaccinated in the past few weeks.
So far, however, only around a third of this group has received a so-called booster vaccination, 2.4 million people. The health ministers therefore agree that they want to increase the pace here. Among other things, a large-scale information campaign is under discussion, in which those affected should also be written to directly.
The Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, Carsten Watzl, also expects a lot from it. “People get a kind of super protection, so to speak, and can hardly pass the coronavirus on,” he told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “If the virus hits someone like that, then the pathogen is the end of the line and the spread is stopped,” added the immunologist.
The head of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, does not see the booster vaccinations as a major problem. The third vaccinations will be managed. But the large group of unvaccinated people remains. These people would more or less all become infected by spring. “That remains a huge problem,” said Gassen.
Is a new lockdown looming?
There is hardly any threat of a new lockdown. Spahn emphasized on the TV broadcaster RTL that the decisive difference to 2020 is that you now have the instrument of vaccination. “Quite a lot of everyday life is possible” again. It is only important that this is and remains an everyday routine with caution, warned Spahn, with the 3G rule for vaccinated, convalescent and tested people or the 2G rule only for vaccinated and convalescent people in regions with high numbers of infections.
However, Spahn had already called for more thorough controls of access rules, especially in the catering sector. The German Hotel and Restaurant Association responded with a warning to the companies to implement the requirements consistently. “No ifs or buts: The applicable corona protective measures must be observed by all companies. This includes, in particular, consistent access control, ”said the association’s general manager, Ingrid Hartges, of the German Press Agency.
KBV boss Gassen told Handelsblatt that from a medical point of view, the 2G option is understandable. “But it is likely to be difficult to implement overall, for example in relation to children who cannot be vaccinated at the moment.” In addition, a mandatory introduction would above all raise constitutional and socio-political questions that cannot be answered by medical professionals, he said Measure has an impact on society that must not be ignored. “
Help for hospitals
Financial support for hospitals is also on the agenda of the Health Ministers’ Conference. If clinics to care for corona patients have to postpone interventions again, “a targeted financial compensation scheme” would be necessary, according to a draft resolution from several countries for the conference, which is available to the German Press Agency.
The Federal Ministry of Health should therefore enable compensation payments from the health fund. The head of the Techniker Krankenkasse, Jens Baas, also called for further help in the Handelsblatt interview. “If other treatments have to be suspended because of the intensive care unit occupancy and this puts clinics in financial difficulties, they should in fact be extended,” he said. In addition, it must be ensured that only affected clinics benefit. “It wasn’t like that at first.”
With agency material.
More: Compulsory PCR testing in restaurants, 3G rule at work: The pressure on unvaccinated people is growing.