Status: 08/26/2022 07:25 a.m
In Germany, the corona drug Paxlovid has so far only been prescribed hesitantly. Minister of Health Lauterbach wants to change that – and is planning concrete measures. Meanwhile, the summer wave continues to ebb away.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to make the corona drug Paxlovid an essential tool in the fight against the pandemic. Therefore, general practitioners should now have the drug in stock in their practice and give it directly to corona patients, Lauterbach told the “Spiegel”. The detour via the pharmacies is no longer necessary. A regulation should also be remunerated with 15 euros.
In addition, every nursing home should also appoint a Paxlovid officer to take care of everything organizational. A supply of the drug should also be allowed to be stored there in the future so that it can be used quickly.
Bought a million packs
So far, many doctors in Germany have been very reluctant to prescribe the drug from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The drug has been conditionally approved since the end of January for adults suffering from Covid “who do not need additional oxygen and who are at increased risk of the disease becoming serious,” according to the European Medicines Agency.
The Federal Ministry of Health had bought a million packs as a precaution. However, only around 43,000 packs were delivered from wholesalers to pharmacies.
Fewer corona patients in intensive care units
In principle, however, the Omikron Omikron wave will continue to ebb this summer. This is also evident in the case of severe corona diseases. “These data consistently show that the current wave has peaked, even in the case of severe illnesses,” says the Robert Koch Institute’s current weekly report on Covid-19.
The authors describe declining trends in the number of patients with Covid-19 in German intensive care units and in Covid-19 diagnoses. Nevertheless, the “infection pressure in the general population remains high in all age groups”.
According to estimates by the RKI, 300,000 to 800,000 people in Germany fell ill in the past week, and 190,000 doctor visits are assumed in this context. This is also a decrease compared to the week before, it said.
Incidence decreased by 12 percent
According to the RKI, the nationwide seven-day incidence, which is based on the number of positive PCR tests, fell by a total of twelve percent in a weekly comparison. Despite the improved operating situation in recent weeks, the burden on the health system remains high, according to the RKI.
A high number of hospital admissions, Covid 19 intensive care patients and deaths are expected to continue in the coming weeks. According to the report, people over 80 are particularly at risk. A sample of analyzed positive cases shows that the omicron subline BA.5 is still almost exclusively responsible for infection: the proportion is around 95 percent for the third week in a row. The remaining verifications are for BA.2 and BA.4.