pandemic
Incidence for the first time since May back at 100 – Spahn nevertheless for the end of emergency
When will signs like this be a thing of the past?
© Sven Hoppe / DPA
It’s only a symbolic number, but it makes you sit up and take notice: The corona incidence in Germany is again in three digits. Health Minister Spahn wants to end the national state of emergency despite the rising trend – and is thus met with criticism.
Corona infections in Germany have increased significantly again: The seven-day incidence on the weekend reached 100 for the first time since mid-May. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the exact number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Saturday morning 100 on. The previous day the value was 95.1, a week ago it was 70.8. The health authorities in Germany reported 15,145 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.
Intensive care units lack staff
With the rising corona numbers, worries about overloading the health system are also re-emerging. “The incidences are still extremely closely linked to the recordings in the intensive care units. That worries me a lot,” said Christian Karagiannidis, senior physician at the Lung Clinic Cologne-Merheim and scientific director of the intensive care register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine ( DIVI), the Deutschlandradio. Although the intensive care units are currently occupied with Covid and other patients about as much as a year ago, there is now less free capacity because the number of beds had to be reduced due to a lack of nursing staff.
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The total number of Covid 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 as 2.68. The previous high was around 15.5 around Christmas time.
In view of the increasing numbers, the move by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) to end the corona emergency is for discussion. Spahn said on Deutschlandfunk that it was about ending a state of emergency after 19 months. The powers of the federal government should be restored to a normal state. But he also said that this does not mean “Freedom Day” or the end of all measures. These could also be regulated without the state of emergency.
“Remain sensible even over the last few meters”
Should the measures end, critics fear a “patchwork quilt” of measures and regulations. The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach told the “Passauer Neue Presse” that Spahn’s announcement in a phase in which there were increasing numbers of infections, vaccination breakthroughs, stagnating vaccination rates and other problems had surprised him. Should the determination of the epidemic emergency actually expire after November 25, he called for a replacement regulation. The minister-presidents of the federal states also recently declared that there must continue to be a uniform national legal basis for the corona protective measures.
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil also urged caution. “We moved through this crisis very sensibly and in solidarity. It should stay that way over the last few meters,” said Klingbeil to the newspapers of the Funke media group. According to Klingbeil, questions relating to the Infection Protection Act and the pandemic situation should be assessed together in the Bundestag. “In this transition period after the election we will look for majorities in parliament that are larger than the current government,” said the SPD politician.