The designated Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as a guest of the Pro Sieben entertainers Joko and Klaas, made an impressive appeal for vaccinations to the television viewers. “It is important to me that everyone who can get vaccinated. Only that helps,” said the SPD politician on Wednesday evening in the ProSieben program “Joko and Klaas 15 minutes live”. Scholz sat alone on a chair on a stage and spoke directly into the camera.
Before him, a 23-year-old with Long Covid and a senior physician in the intensive care unit at the Charité appeared and described their experiences. Scholz continued: “What is new in this fourth wave is: the line between those who have a mild or a very severe course after a Covid disease no longer goes between old and young, but between vaccinated and unvaccinated. And everyone has to know: Those who do not get vaccinated endanger themselves, endanger children and all those around them who cannot be vaccinated due to previous illnesses. “
Joko and Klaas have many pupils and students among their fans. The politician used the audience of millions to make statements targeted at young people. “I am aware that keeping your distance and being young go very badly together. That many suffer from loneliness. That it should end, that it should start again – life, the light-heartedness. Nobody is just fine in these Times. Not me, you and you not. ” Everyone can and should be vaccinated. “I want us to have up to 30 million vaccinations in our upper arms by Christmas.”
In the program “Joko and Klaas 15 minutes live”, the two presenters can arrange a quarter of an hour airtime as they wish – they often use the time for serious topics.
Bundeswehr mobilizes thousands of forces in the fight against pandemic
The Bundeswehr is mobilizing thousands more soldiers to help fight the fourth wave of corona. By next Tuesday, the contingent will be increased from the current 8,000 by a further 4,000 to 12,000. This was announced by the armed forces base in Bonn.
It will take some time before all soldiers are deployed: a third of the soldiers have a reaction time of only 48 to 72 hours. For the others, graduated response times of 7 to 14 days apply. The Bundeswehr is already helping with 5900 soldiers as part of administrative assistance in 14 federal states, as it was said. The focus is on Bavaria (1700), Saxony (480) and North Rhine-Westphalia (570). Another 90 applications for administrative assistance with 900 employees, including for health authorities and vaccination centers, are in preparation – “and the trend is rising,” as it was said.
The National Territorial Commander, Lieutenant General Martin Schelleis, said that dealing with the corona pandemic was the top priority for the country. “Everyone is in demand – including our Bundeswehr. In this emergency we provide support for as long as we are needed.”
Intensive care physicians are calling for a return to the epidemic emergency
The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Divi) has spoken out in favor of reinstating the law on epidemic emergencies in Germany. There is now a need for nationwide measures to restrict contact, if necessary through a renewed temporary lockdown, said Divi President Gernot Marx at a press conference. With a view to the new virus mutant Omikron alone, it is now important to limit contacts as much as possible. “I think we are well advised to react immediately and comprehensively here,” said Marx. The clinics would have to be saved from overload, which also means that all operations that are not medically necessary would have to be postponed in order to keep intensive care capacities free.
Marx again pleaded for the introduction of the general compulsory vaccination for adults. “We have changed our mind about vaccination,” he said. Because the vaccinations did not lead to the desired result on a voluntary basis. Even before the conference, Marx stressed on ZDF that around a million booster vaccinations were needed per day in order not to break the current fourth corona wave, but to be able to prevent a fifth and sixth.
“It is really a threatening situation,” said Marx during the conference regarding the situation in the intensive care units. Currently around 4,600 patients in Germany with Covid-19 diseases would have to receive intensive care. In the past week alone, 1,400 new patients were added. The Divi-Mediziner expect the wave to peak before Christmas. Then around 6,000 patients would have to be cared for, while at the same time around 4,000 fewer intensive care beds would be available than in the previous year because of the nursing emergency. Marx warns that the ventilation beds in particular have fallen from 12,000 a year ago to 9,000. “Because we lack the nursing staff in every nook and cranny.”
Divi President Marx paints a particularly precarious picture of the situation in Saxony and Bavaria. In Bavaria, 30 percent of the intensive care beds are occupied by corona patients, in Saxony 40 percent. Recent studies have shown that if the occupancy rate exceeds 50 percent, mortality increases. Therefore, according to Marx, measures must above all also be taken regionally.
The current relocation system based on the so-called cloverleaf concept currently still guarantees that the gold standard of intensive medical care can be maintained, emphasized Karl-Georg Kanz, district coordinator for relocations in the administrative district of Upper Bavaria. Mathematician Andreas Schuppert explains that the incidence is currently flat in individual regions until the effect is also shown in the occupancy of the intensive care units, but it will take weeks.
“We are not in a position to be able to rule out anything. Nobody wants a lockdown,” said Marx. If the clinics are full, this can no longer be avoided. It is up to us how our Christmas party turns out. ”But Marx also emphasized:“ We see the special obligation to keep schools and daycare centers open. ”Closures should only take place if absolutely necessary. (01.12.2021)
NRW restricts major events from Saturday
In North Rhine-Westphalia, significant restrictions on the number of spectators at major events such as football games are to apply from Saturday. The CDU state parliamentary group leader Bodo Löttgen announced in a special session of the Düsseldorf state parliament on the corona crisis. The black-yellow coalition decided “for a significant reduction in the number of viewers”.
Previously, Löttgen, who is also on the Borussia Dortmund supervisory board, said to protest calls from the plenary: “There is no safer place in Germany than a stadium.” There are “tough controls” and the arrival and departure of fans is “finally done in 3G-controlled means of transport”.
The NRW coalition will nevertheless decide on restrictions because pictures of thousands of cheering football fans without masks and pictures of helicopters transporting seriously ill Covid patients through the republic did not match. “We do not want to and will not see these images of football again,” said Löttgen.
With a view to the top game in the Bundesliga against Bayern Munich on Saturday, Borussia Dortmund had already canceled the sale of tickets before the state government’s decision.
Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) had previously announced further planned restrictions – including the closure of clubs and discos. With the specific requirements, he wants to wait for the federal-state round on Thursday.
Germany receives vaccine for children earlier than planned
The corona vaccinations for children may start earlier than expected. Germany and the other EU countries will receive the children’s vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer on December 13th, one week earlier than previously planned. The delivery date for the vaccine for five to eleven year olds applies to all EU countries, said the Federal Ministry of Health.
The delivery was originally scheduled for December 20th. The manufacturer has promised the new delivery date, said the Managing Minister of Health Jens Spahn. In view of the current pandemic, this is good news for parents and children. Many waited longingly for it.
In Germany there are around 4.5 million children in this age group. Spahn had said that the 2.4 million vaccine doses should be enough for the start, and there should be more deliveries in 2022. According to the government, 46.1 percent of the 12 to 17 age group have been fully vaccinated so far.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved Biontech’s children’s vaccine last week. The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) had recently announced that it would complete a recommendation on Covid-19 vaccination of children by the end of December, if possible by the start of delivery of the vaccine to the federal states. Stiko boss Thomas Mertens recently emphasized that the role of children in fighting pandemics was overemphasized by some. When the vaccine was approved by the EU for those aged twelve and over in May, Stiko initially only recommended vaccinations for adolescents with previous illnesses. It was only in August that she recommended this to everyone aged twelve and over and referred to a broader database. (December 01, 2021)
Nationwide incidence falls for the second time in a row
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reports 67 186 new infections within 24 hours. That is 302 cases more than on Wednesday a week ago when 66,884 were reported. The seven-day incidence drops for the second time in a row to 442.9 from 452.2 the previous day. In the previous weeks, the value had risen daily. It indicates how many people per 100,000 population have contracted the coronavirus in the past seven days. 446 other people died linked to the virus within 24 hours. This increases the number of reported deaths within one day to 101 790. In total, more than 5.9 million corona tests have so far been positive in Germany. (December 01, 2021)