With immediate effect, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) recommends all people over the age of 18 to have the Covid-19 booster vaccination. A corresponding draft resolution had gone to expert groups and federal states for a vote, so changes are still possible, said Stiko. It is not yet a final recommendation.
Initially, the Stiko recommended a booster vaccination only for older people over the age of 70, people who are particularly at risk, residents of care facilities and medical and nursing staff. These groups and those who have not yet been vaccinated should receive the vaccination preferentially. However, Stiko boss Mertens announced a further recommendation a few days ago.
According to Stiko, the booster vaccination should usually be given at an interval of six months from the last vaccine dose of the basic vaccination. But a more flexible handling of the time gap is also planned. A shortening of the vaccination interval to five months can be considered in individual cases or if there is sufficient capacity, “it said. People who have been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Stiko recommends a booster vaccination from four weeks after the primary vaccination. The According to Stiko, a booster vaccination should be carried out with an mRNA vaccine, so the vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna come into question.
The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach had asked the Stiko to couple their recommendation for booster vaccinations with a prioritization. “If we open the booster to everyone without any restrictions, we will put the prioritization in the hands of the practices. With 30,000 medical practices that means 30,000 different prioritizations,” Lauterbach told the German editorial network. He had requested that the Stiko clearly state which group is next for the booster vaccinations. From his point of view, people over 70 and 60 years of age should be prioritized, then also people over 50. Since the full protection of the booster vaccination only unfolds after two weeks, one should “quickly vaccinate the over 50-year-olds in order to get them for the next weeks to protect “. (11/17/2021)
Upper Austria and Salzburg are likely to go into lockdown
The regions of Austria most affected by the pandemic want to impose a lockdown on their entire population. This was announced by the Prime Ministers of Salzburg and Upper Austria. Details to be announced.
Upper Austria’s governor Thomas Stelzer also announced that he would also campaign “for a nationwide uniform and tough approach” at the governor’s conference on Friday. The country’s medical expert board is expected to meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss further steps. “Although we have already tightened the situation several times in Upper Austria, the corona situation is still very dramatic,” said Stelzer
On Thursday, the number of new infections within 24 hours in Austria reached a record of 15,145. The seven-day incidence was 989. The conservative green government is under increasing pressure that the measures it has adopted are insufficient to stop the fourth wave. So far these have mainly affected the unvaccinated. Healthcare experts are calling for a lockdown for everyone, especially in the particularly badly affected federal states of Upper Austria and Salzburg. The two federal states each have the lowest vaccination rate in the country at around 61 percent. Nationwide, 65.5 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. (11/18/2021)
Kretschmer announces “hard and clear breakwater” for pandemic
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) has announced further tough cuts in his state in view of the dramatically increasing corona infections. In a government declaration in the state parliament, he spoke of a “hard and clear breakwater” for two or three weeks. He avoided the word lockdown. Details are to be decided by the cabinet on Friday. The head of government said that the decision in the Bundestag and Bundesrat still had to be awaited.
Kretschmer referred to the extremely high value of the weekly incidence in Saxony, which the Robert Koch Institute stated on Thursday as 761.4. This means that Saxony has by far the highest infection rate in Germany, ahead of Bavaria (609.5) and Thuringia (565.0). This shows once again that urgent action is needed, emphasized Kretschmer. The epidemic needs forward-looking action. There is a direct connection between vaccination rate and incidence. Saxony has the lowest vaccination rate, although vaccination has been advertised again and again. There is only one way to end the disease – immunization. (11/18/2021)
RKI boss Wieler warns of a “very bad Christmas”
The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, has drawn a dramatic picture of the corona situation in Germany. “We are currently in a serious emergency. We will really have a very bad Christmas if we do not take countermeasures now,” said Wieler in an online discussion with the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU).
The number of new infections is rising steeply, and in fact it is likely to be far higher than known: “The under-reporting of the true numbers is increasing.” The more than 50,000 infections that are currently being registered every day “are at least twice or three times as many,” said the RKI boss. Most recently, 0.8 percent of the sick died. This means that of the more than 50,000 people infected each day, 400 would die in the coming weeks. “There is nothing more to be done about that.” At the federal press conference, he recently spoke more cautiously of 200 deaths per day, but the number is actually higher. Nobody can help these people, not even with the best medical care.
The situation in the hospitals is also getting worse and worse, according to Wieler. “We have never been as worried as we are now,” said the RKI boss. The number of seriously ill Covid patients is increasing, and people with a stroke and other seriously ill people have to search for a free intensive care bed for up to two hours in some places. “The supply is already no longer in accordance with the rule in all federal states.” And that will increase.
“As you can see, the prognoses are extremely bleak. They are really bleak,” said Wieler. “There is an emergency in our country. If you don’t see it, you’re making a very big mistake.” (11/18/2021)
For the first time more than 65,000 new infections
That Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reports with 65,371 new positive tests within 24 hours, another new daily high in the pandemic. That is 15,175 cases more than on Thursday a week ago. The seven-day incidence jumps to a value of 336.9 from 319.5 the previous day. 264 other people died related to the virus. This increases the number of reported deaths to 98,538 within a day. In total, more than 5.1 million corona tests have so far been positive in Germany.
The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days – the most important parameter for a possible tightening of the corona restrictions – was given by the RKI on Wednesday at 5.15 (Tuesday: 4.86). With the indicator it must be taken into account that hospital admissions are sometimes reported with delay. A nationwide threshold value from when the situation can be viewed critically is not provided for the incidence of hospitalization, among other things because of large regional differences. The previous high was around 15.5 around Christmas 2020. This value has already been exceeded in some cases: In Thuringia, the incidence of hospitalization is 18.63. (11/18/2021)
Schwesig and Giffey for 2 G nationwide
Before the federal and state corona summit this Thursday, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) is in favor of uniform national standards in the fight against the pandemic. “I see the development of the corona numbers in Germany with great concern, especially in the south of Germany. We need stronger protective measures again in winter. And we need uniform standards as to when the protective measures take effect,” says Schwesig der Rheinische Post.
“We in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have already acted and sharpened our Corona traffic light. If a district or an urban district reaches the ‘orange’ warning level on this traffic light, the 2-G rule applies in many indoor areas, for example in gastronomy Sports studio or at cultural events. I could imagine such a mandatory rule for all of Germany. “
The Berlin SPD state chairwoman and future governing mayor Franziska Giffey sees it similarly. She calls for the 2-G rule to be extended to the entire federal territory. If all the offers, campaigns, awareness-raising and appeals for a higher vaccination rate would no longer help, then more binding measures would have to be examined to reduce the number of infections, protect the health system from overload and prevent a new lockdown, she told the Funke media group . “The nationwide, nationwide expansion of the 2-G rule, with exceptions only for those who cannot be vaccinated, is part of it.” (11/18/2021)
Spahn is targeting 20 to 25 million booster vaccinations by the end of the year
The Ministry of Health aims to have 20 to 25 million booster vaccinations against the coronavirus administered in Germany by the end of the year. This is what it says in a report to the Bundestag and the Prime Minister’s Conference that will meet on Thursday on the pandemic. In the six remaining weeks until the end of December that would mean three to four million vaccinations per week.
The report goes on to say that studies have shown that a third-party vaccination not only increases individual protection against a severe course of Covid-19, but also has a high benefit in containing the infection process, as it results in a lower viral load and thus less further spread of the virus. “This is a decisive factor, especially in the current phase,” says the report from the house of the executive minister of health, Jens Spahn (CDU).
The report refers, among other things, to the importance of vaccination centers: The offer of the centers will be a decisive contribution to support and supplement the established medical profession, who currently administer around 70 percent of the booster vaccinations, “in this important phase of the vaccination campaign.” Spahn had already promised the federal states that the federal government would continue to pay half of the costs for the vaccination centers until at least the end of April 2022. (11/18/2021)