The seven-day incidence of new corona infections has fallen slightly. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Tuesday morning, it was 83.8 – the previous day the value was 84.3, a week ago it was 74.8. The health authorities in Germany reported 6,726 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. This is evident from the figures that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 04:39 a.m. A week ago the value was 5750 infections.
According to the new information, 59 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 60 deaths. The RKI has counted 4,017,116 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not detected.
The incidence of new infections has so far been the basis for many corona restrictions in the pandemic, for example as part of the federal emergency brake that expired at the end of June. In the future, other values such as the number of hospital admissions will also be given greater consideration.
The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI in its management report on Monday at 1.64 (Friday 1.83). A nationwide threshold, 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 time.
The seven-day incidence is calculated according to RKI information on the basis of the reporting date to the local health department. According to this, an average of about ten days elapse between an infection and hospitalization, so this value reflects the infection situation with a noticeable delay.
The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered at 3 783 800. The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 92,413. (07.09.2021)
Vaccination query comes – but not everywhere
The federal government wants to test young people free of charge until the end of November
Children from twelve to 17 years of age are expected to be able to get free rapid corona tests until the end of November. This emerges from a draft of the Federal Ministry of Health for a new test regulation, which is supposed to implement the planned general end of free tests for all citizens on October 11th. First reported the news portal ThePioneer and Business Insider on the draft, it is available to the German Press Agency.
According to this, people without symptoms who have not yet reached the age of 18 should also be entitled to free tests until November 30th. Free tests should generally remain possible for everyone who cannot be vaccinated – including children under the age of twelve, for whom there is currently no approved vaccine, as well as pregnant women.
Chancellor Merkel and the prime ministers had decided that the federally financed offer for free citizen tests for everyone should end. As a rule, you should be able to pay for them yourself from mid-October. Since a direct vaccination offer can now be made to everyone, a permanent assumption of the costs by the taxpayer is not indicated, it said in the decision. In the draft ordinance for the new regulation, reference is made to the fact that the Standing Vaccination Commission has also had a general vaccination recommendation for the group of twelve to 17-year-olds since mid-August. In order to give them sufficient time to find out about vaccination offers and to obtain complete vaccination protection, free tests should be possible for everyone up to the age of 17 until the end of November. (06.09.2021)
Federal government funds development of Covid drugs with 150 million euros
The federal government wants to support six projects to develop drugs against Covid-19 with around 150 million euros. “We are optimistic that at the end of the tests there will actually be effective drugs that can then be approved,” said Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek on Monday. Specifically, it concerns the German companies Adrenomed, Apogenix, Atriva Therapeutics, Corat Therapeutics, Inflarx and the DRK Baden-Württemberg-Hessen gGmbH, which coordinates the projects. “Corona will stay with us. And we will need medication to treat people suffering from Covid-19. Therefore, in addition to the question of getting the pandemic under control, the question of further drug research is the focus for us.”
Karliczek said the ministry wants to support projects that are already in advanced clinical development and should be funded pending approval. Studies are planned with both moderately severe and severely to critically ill ventilated patients. Among other things, the treatment with antibodies and blocking molecules will be investigated. According to Karliczek, some of the drugs have already been researched for diseases such as cancer or sepsis. They should also work with a different mechanism of action than the previously used drugs remdesivir and dexamethasone.
When these drugs will be available is still open and depends on their effectiveness in the clinical studies. “Ideally, some of the projects are planning conditional approval, which could possibly become valid as early as next year,” said Karliczek. The aim of the funding is also to build up and expand manufacturing capacities in Germany. For the development of Covid-19 vaccines, the federal government set up a special program with a volume of up to 750 million euros last year, with which the biotech companies Biontech, Curevac and IDT Biologika were funded. (06.09.2021)
EU authority EMA reviews Biontech booster vaccination
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) wants to complete its evaluation of a booster vaccination with the Covid-19 vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer in the next few weeks. The application for a third dose of the vaccine six months after the second dose in people over 16 years of age will be examined more quickly, the EMA said. The EMA is also reviewing data on a third dose of one of the mRNA vaccines from Biontech and Moderna in severely immunocompromised people.
According to the EMA and there is currently no urgent need for booster vaccinations in the general population. However, they should be considered in severely immunocompromised people. (06.09.2021)
Laschet for the obligation to provide information on vaccination status in all establishments
Union Chancellor candidate Laschet has spoken out in favor of an obligation to provide information on the vaccination status in all companies in Germany. “The employer must know who is vaccinated in the company in order to be able to take protective measures,” he said at the “election check” of the Heilbronn voice. However, people who have not been vaccinated should not be discriminated against. “You have to do it carefully.” The Union and the SPD in the Bundestag have only agreed that employers in daycare centers, schools and nursing homes may ask employees whether they have been vaccinated against the corona virus. So far, this has only been allowed in medical practices and clinics.
Laschet spoke out against restricting unvaccinated people more in view of the increasing numbers in the Corona crisis. “I think the 3-G rule should apply.” According to this, certain areas of public life are open to those who have been vaccinated and recovered as well as those who have tested negative. In some federal states, 2G should apply in some areas, which means that unvaccinated people should be restricted more. Laschet did not want to rule out the possibility that there would be further cuts for the unvaccinated. He only wanted to rule out a new lockdown for vaccinated people. “Vaccinated people in particular should no longer suffer any disadvantages.”
Laschet also criticized SPD Chancellor candidate Scholz, who said at the weekend that people in Germany were “guinea pigs” when they were vaccinated. “We were not guinea pigs,” emphasized Laschet, referring to the vaccine approval process. “Such slogans fuel the lateral thinkers.” Scholz should take this “very bad word” back, he demanded. (06.09.2021)
Karliczek for uniform quarantine rules for schoolchildren
In the run-up to the deliberations of the health ministers of the federal states, Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) spoke out in favor of uniform quarantine rules for schoolchildren. A 14-day quarantine is often too long. “But of course it is important that we maintain acceptance for a while in this difficult situation, and for that we need, I think so, a uniform, fundamental line,” continues Karliczek. Despite uniform rules, however, the health authorities should be given leeway for individual cases. “That is also important,” said the minister on Monday on Deutschlandfunk.
The head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun, has also spoken out in favor of uniform nationwide quarantine rules in schools, for example. The states and municipalities should be guided by the Prime Minister’s decision of five days of quarantine. The background is that the 16 countries, but also individual municipalities, interpret the quarantine rules differently.
The German medical officers had also called for nationwide uniform quarantine rules for cases of infection in schools. “The uncertainty among parents and teachers due to the many different quarantine rules is great,” said the chairman of the Federal Association of Doctors in the Public Health Service, Ute Teichert, the newspapers of the Funke media group (Monday). In some cases, there are not only different procedures in the countries, but also between individual health authorities. “The federal states now urgently need to agree on nationwide quarantine rules for schools. This creates security and facilitates the acceptance of the measures,” argued Teichert.
The medical representative spoke out in favor of considering protective concepts without a quarantine obligation. It makes sense to observe the currently running pilot projects in which alternatives to quarantine are being examined. “If it turns out that it is more effective to test the school contact persons of an infected student on a daily basis instead of sending them into quarantine, such a procedure should become the nationwide standard,” said Teichert.
The health ministers of the federal states want to advise on quarantine measures in the case of corona infections in schools on Monday. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) recently insisted on standardizing the rules. (06.09.2021)