According to doctors, there are almost no patients vaccinated against Covid-19 without a previous illness in the corona intensive care units in Germany. “The vast majority are not vaccinated at all or not completely vaccinated,” said Gernot Marx, President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Divi), the editorial network Germany (RND). The vaccinated minority consists largely of older patients whose second vaccination was a long time ago. “As a rule, these people also suffer from serious chronic illnesses.”
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, around one in ten of the patients who were treated for corona in intensive care units in August and September were fully vaccinated. This emerges from a response from the Ministry to a request from the left-wing member of the Bundestag Sahra Wagenknecht, which became known on Tuesday.
The Divi President described the capacities for free beds in the intensive care units as currently relatively stable. “At the moment we are in a plateau phase, we are stagnating at around 1,300 Covid intensive care patients. The situation is under control,” said Marx. “We are now able to act and have an average of two free intensive care beds per location.”
Because of low effectiveness
The biotech company Curevac is withdrawing its first vaccine candidate from the approval process at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). As the company announced in Tübingen on Tuesday, it was assumed that EMA approval would not have been granted until the second quarter of 2022 at the earliest.
There was no formal application for approval for the vaccine candidate CVnCoV, CVnCoV was still in the so-called rolling procedure for approval. In late June, Curevac announced that its first-generation vaccine candidate was less effective than some other vaccines. At the beginning of July, the Tübingen-based biotech company assumed that the EMA would approve the vaccine despite its low effectiveness.
According to a final analysis, the Curevac preparation had shown an effectiveness of 48 percent against Covid 19 disease across all age groups. This makes it significantly less effective overall than other vaccines. The company wants to focus on the development of another Covid-19 vaccine with its British partner Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK). (10/12/2021)
Vaccine breakthroughs increased in recent months
About every tenth patient treated for corona in intensive care units in August and September was fully vaccinated. This emerges from a response sent by the Federal Ministry of Health at the end of September to a request from the left-wing member of the Bundestag Sahra Wagenknecht. The newspapers of the Funke media group had reported about it first.
A total of 11,419 corona patients received intensive care from February to mid-September. A vaccination breakthrough was assumed in 210 of them (1.84 percent). In the period from mid-August to mid-September, 1186 corona patients were treated in intensive care units, 119 of them were assumed to have had a breakthrough vaccination. This corresponds to 10.03 percent of the cases. In the most recent recorded period from the beginning of September to the beginning of October, the RKI counted a total of 938 vaccine breakthroughs that had to be treated in intensive care, which corresponds to a share of 16.52 percent of all intensive treatments due to Covid-19. 145 people with breakthroughs died within four weeks, all but one of whom were older than 60 years.
The Robert Koch Institute emphasized: “It is to be expected that more vaccination breakthroughs will be recorded over time, as more and more people are vaccinated and Sars-CoV-2 is currently spreading again. This increases the likelihood of being fully vaccinated to come into contact with the virus. ” The president of the intensive care medicine association DIVI, Gernot Marx, said that patients with severe and fatal corona courses were unvaccinated in almost all cases. In addition, the vaccination breakthrough mostly affects people whose “immune system is weakened by chemotherapy or long-term cortisone treatment, or who are older than 80 years.” (10/12/2021)
The federal government paid around five billion euros for free tests
According to the Ministry of Health, federal spending on free corona citizen tests amounts to more than five billion euros. By mid-September 2021, the health fund had already billed 5.2 billion euros, reports the Rheinische Post from a communication from the ministry.
For the majority of citizens, the opportunity to take the free corona test ends this week. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the Prime Ministers had agreed that the offer for free “citizen tests” financed by the federal government since the beginning of March should end without symptoms. Since free vaccinations are possible for everyone, taxpayers no longer have to assume the test costs on a permanent basis.
But there are also some transitional rules. Children aged twelve to 17 and pregnant women can take at least one free test per week until December 31st. The reason is that a general vaccination recommendation from the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has only recently been available – so there should be longer time for a vaccination.
Tests are generally free of charge for people who cannot be vaccinated, including children under the age of twelve and those who only turned twelve in the three months prior to the test. It remains free, among other things, for people who need a test to end a quarantine due to a corona infection. (10/12/2021)
Thailand opens borders to vaccinated people from Germany
From November 1, Thailand will open its borders to quarantine-free holidays for fully vaccinated people from at least ten countries – including Germany. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced this in a televised address. Other countries that are on the list for their low incidence of corona are Singapore, China, and the United States. Vacationers only need to do one PCR test before leaving home and another when arriving in Thailand, Prayut said. After that, they could travel to any part of the country. From December 1st, further countries are expected to be added to the list. Then the serving of alcohol in restaurants, which has been banned for months due to a severe corona wave, will probably be allowed again.
“It was also one of the most painful experiences of my life for me to make decisions that had to reconcile saving lives with saving livelihoods,” stressed Prayut. The tourism sector, which is extremely important for the country, has been almost completely on the ground for more than a year and a half. Many people have no income since then.
Last year, Thailand was still considered a model country in the fight against the pandemic – since April, the state has experienced its worst wave to date. The number of infections in the country with 70 million inhabitants is slowly falling. On Tuesday, the authorities reported around 9,400 new infections and 84 deaths in connection with Covid-19.
Australia’s capital wants to lift lockdown after two months
After two months, the lockdown in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region with the Australian capital Canberra will be lifted on Friday. This is possible because 72 percent of citizens are now fully vaccinated, said the regional government. On Monday, the lockdown in the state of New South Wales with the metropolis of Sydney was ended – after 106 days. The region around Canberra lies on the east coast and is enclosed by New South Wales.
In the ACT, groups of up to 25 people should meet again outdoors and up to five people in their homes from the end of the week, it said. Restaurants, hairdressers and swimming pools as well as many other facilities can also reopen if strict distance rules are observed. (11.10.2021)