The seven-day incidence in Germany is currently falling significantly – on Easter Sunday the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported a value of 834.3. A week ago, the incidence was 1097.9. Even if the current data is not really meaningful because of the holidays, experts assume that the number of infections is actually falling. “Our models are currently showing a similar decline as the reporting incidences,” said modelers led by Kai Nagel from the TU Berlin. “This suggests that this is not an artifact of a changed testing strategy, but a real decline.”
The epidemiologist Hajo Zeeb also assumes that the infection rate is decreasing: “We are dealing with epidemic waves, and this omicron wave has passed its peak, to which the seasonal trend is also gradually contributing.” A comparison with courses in other countries confirms this, says the expert from the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen, as the dpa news agency writes.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is nevertheless concerned about next autumn and winter. He warns of a possible “killer variant” of the corona virus later this year. “Various omicron subvariants are currently developing, which I am concerned about,” said the politician the “picture on sunday”. Lauterbach continues: It is “quite possible that we will get a highly contagious omicron variant that is as deadly as Delta”.
He was immediately criticized for this statement. The virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit from the University of Hamburg reacted on Twitter on Sunday: “What are these killer variants?”
He said to the “Bild”: “The appearance of a ‘killer variant’ in the fall – whatever that may be – is a very unlikely scenario according to the World Health Organization WHO.”
Omicron is an immune escape variant of the corona virus that tries to circumvent human immune protection. However, one has seen “that the vaccination offered good protection against serious illness and death”, the newspaper quoted him on Monday.
The Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck also criticized the choice of words by the Minister of Health. He told the paper that the development of variants is as unpredictable as it is influencing: “So instead of warning about scenarios like ‘killer variants’, it would be important to prepare for autumn and winter.”
As a rule, however, a virus does not become more dangerous. “If you humanize the virus for illustration, then it wants to be transmitted more easily, evade immune responses, and at the same time not lose its own fitness. Disease-causing properties are not one of them,” explained Streek.
The CDU health politician Erwin Rüddel had also criticized Lauterbach: “He should have actually learned from his mistakes and misjudgments,” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
Lauterbach went on to say that he wanted to combat threatening waves in the fall with large-scale vaccine orders. “Our goal is to have enough vaccine for every citizen, no matter what variant comes. Then we’ll have an antidote for both an omicron and a delta variant.” Then you’re prepared for anything.
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He advocated changes to the Infection Protection Act as quickly as possible in order to be able to enforce a mask requirement indoors again in autumn. “The situation will change again in autumn, then the cases will increase, then there will probably be new mutations or the number of cases with omicron infections will increase sharply. That’s why we have to revise the Infection Protection Act again by then.”
The head of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, told the dpa that if the Minister of Health wanted to tighten the Infection Protection Act in the fall, then he should start convincing the liberal coalition partner now. “In the past, Karl Lauterbach waited until the last minute to do so. The result is now a legal regulation that offers little protection.”
Lauterbach went on to say in the interview that it could then “be absolutely necessary and legally achievable again that we make wearing masks indoors compulsory again.” According to Lauterbach, the rejection of compulsory vaccination is also responsible for such a development: “The failure of compulsory vaccination was a bitter disappointment,” emphasized the minister. “After a good summer, the large vaccination gap can mean a tough autumn. Then many scientists expect the next waves.”
Reports that eleven million doses of vaccine will soon have to be destroyed were rejected by Lauterbach: “That’s not true. Depending on how many people want a fourth shot, only four million doses will expire at most.”
The health authorities in Germany reported 39,784 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. A week ago there were 55,471 registered infections. However, experts have been assuming that there has been an under-recording for some time, for example because not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only these count in the statistics.
According to the new information, 13 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 36 deaths. The RKI has counted 23,416,663 proven infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected.
The number of corona-infected patients who came to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was 6.41 according to the RKI on Thursday (Wednesday: 6.49). Here, too, there are days with incomplete reports. The value also includes many people with a positive corona test who have another main illness. The RKI gave the number of recovered people on Sunday as 19,880,300. The number of people who died from or involved a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 132,942.