The number of infections in the southern European country is increasing significantly.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The increasing corona numbers in Portugal are also fueling concerns about a new wave of pandemics in Germany. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) warned: “Unfortunately, in Portugal it is evident that the mortality rate increases again with the BA.5 omicron variant.”
You have to be prepared for that in the fall. Lauterbach announced a pandemic plan for the cold season at the beginning of May, which is still pending.
The health policy spokesman for the Greens, Janosch Dahmen, is urging preparations to be made in view of the development. “We are well advised to make tried-and-tested measures possible over September 23 where necessary,” he told the Handelsblatt.
It cannot yet be said with certainty whether the health care system will be heavily burdened by the sub-variant. The course and Portugal, but also the sharp increase in respiratory diseases in the southern hemisphere are worrying. “We will probably also experience this development in Germany, so that the health care system will not only be burdened by the corona pandemic,” said Dahmen.
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The health policy spokesman for the FDP, Andrew Ullmann, also told the Handelsblatt that he expected the variant to become the dominant one in Germany in the coming weeks and months. The planned evaluation of the pandemic measures is necessary in order to prepare well for the “coming autumn wave”. However, one should also “not panic when the numbers rise.”
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the omicron subvariant BA.5 is not very common in Germany. According to the most recent RKI weekly report from May 23, their share of infections nationwide in the middle of the month was 2.5 percent.
However, the spread is increasing: in the last week of April, the share of BA.5 was still 0.6 percent, a week later it was 1.2 percent. The seven-day incidence in Germany had recently increased slightly, but is declining overall. The RKI gave the value as 207 on Wednesday. The day before it had been 201.7, but in the previous month it was still 666.4.
In Portugal, on the other hand, the picture is different. According to the National Health Institute Insa, around 87 percent of all registered new infections are now attributable to the omicron subvariant BA.5. The seven-day incidence of new infections has quadrupled since mid-April to around 1800 most recently.
Despite the high vaccination rate of 87 percent in Portugal, the number of hospital patients infected with Corona and mortality related to Covid-19 have recently increased. Most recently there were 230 deaths in one week.
There are hardly any corona restrictions in the country with a good ten million inhabitants. Masks are only compulsory in public transport, nursing homes and hospitals. However, the authorities advise voluntarily wearing mouth and nose protection wherever there is an increased risk of infection. In view of the high number of infections, the country is now discussing stricter measures again.
How the spread of the variant will develop is difficult to predict. In South Africa, where BA.5 spread strongly in late April, the wave peaked a few weeks later. The number of infections, hospital admissions and deaths are declining again. However, such courses only allow limited conclusions to be drawn about the development in other countries, where, for example, the demographics and the immune protection of the population differ greatly.
Experts expect at least an increasing spread of the subvariant in Germany. So does the epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs from the Akkon University in Berlin. “We have already seen some of the infection processes in the pandemic being taken over by new variants of the virus,” he told the Handelsblatt.
Protection needed for vulnerable groups
The new variant will “also spread here in Germany and trigger the next wave of the pandemic in the coming autumn or winter season,” he warned. It could also be that another variant will appear by then.
“Unfortunately, this does not mean that Covid-19 has become harmless, but a new round in the conflict between the virus and the human immune system,” said Ulrichs. He advocated nationwide vaccination and better protection of vulnerable groups in Germany, for example by making masks compulsory indoors and restricting contact.
>>Read here: Stiko recommends Covid-19 vaccination for children aged five to eleven
The Leipzig epidemiologist Markus Scholz does not expect a new wave, at least in the coming months. The reason is the warmer season and the immunity of the population. However, the wave is to be expected by autumn at the latest, “since immunity will also decrease significantly by then,” he told the Handelsblatt.
Virologist Martin Stürmer, on the other hand, is confident about future developments. Many people in Germany could be protected from BA.5 because many have already been infected with the similar type BA.2, he told the news channel ntv. There could be an increase in numbers, but not a massive impairment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the omicron subvariants BA.1 to BA.5 and derived and mixed variants of the pathogen to be of concern. Great Britain also classified BA.5 as worrying, although the number of cases there is very manageable. The British health authorities announced at the end of May that analyzes of the available data so far indicated a growth advantage over the still predominant omicron subvariant BA.2.
With agency material.
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