In view of the increasing number of corona infections in Germany, not everyone who tested positive with a rapid test should be given a PCR test. The health ministers of the federal states unanimously voted in favor of this on Saturday. They welcomed corresponding proposals from Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) for prioritizing PCR tests. The laboratory capacities are finite, said Saxony-Anhalt’s Health Minister Petra Grimm-Benne (SPD) in Magdeburg after a switching conference with her colleagues from the federal states. Staff in hospitals, medical practices and care facilities as well as high-risk patients and people at risk of serious illnesses should definitely have a PCR test.
“For all other people who have no symptoms and can show a positive antigen test result, confirmation by PCR should be avoided.” Instead, a follow-up test with a second monitored antigen test is recommended. The heads of department also spoke out in favor of doing without a PCR test in the event of a red display in the Corona warning app and instead using “high-quality antigen tests” (01/22/2022).
Half of the Germans are boosted
At least half of the population has received a booster shot against the coronavirus. Almost 41.7 million people (50.1 percent) have now been boosted, the Robert Koch Institute announced on Saturday. The booster vaccination is considered effective protection against the particularly contagious virus variant Omicron.
So far, at least 75.4 percent of the population (62.7 million people) have been vaccinated once. The federal government is aiming for 80 percent of those who have been vaccinated for the first time by the end of January. According to the RKI, at least 73.3 percent of the population (60.9 million) have received complete basic protection, usually two doses of vaccine. The RKI still counts people who have only received one dose of the Johnson & Johnson preparation – but this is currently being changed. In the future, people who have been vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson should only benefit from the 2G rules after a second vaccination dose – if possible with an mRNA vaccine such as that from Biontech/Pfizer or Moderna.
Currently, 24.6 percent of the population (20.5 million people) are not vaccinated. For 4.8 percent (four million) of these people aged 0 to 4 years there is no approved vaccine available (01/22/2022).
USA pass 70 million mark
According to a Reuters count, the number of people in the United States who tested positive for Corona has passed the 70 million mark. Most recently, there were almost 870,000 new cases within 24 hours. This brings the total number to around 70.16 million. The number of corona deaths increases by 4484 to 868 441 (01/22/2022).
Russia at new high since pandemic began
In Russia, the corona situation is coming to a head after a relaxation around the turn of the year. As can be seen from government statistics, on Saturday the number of new infections reached 57,200 within one day, a new high since the pandemic began in spring 2020. This value has been rising rapidly for days in the largest country in the world in terms of area. The reason is the spread of the omicron variant, which according to the Interfax news agency now accounts for 48 percent of all infections and is therefore almost as common as the delta variant.
Europe’s largest metropolis, Moscow, is particularly affected, with 16,000 new infections reported within 24 hours on Saturday. The authorities have already increased the number of hospital beds, and individual schools have switched back to distance learning. The government should – if possible – switch to the home office. The vaccination rate in Russia remains low: only 53 percent of the 146 million population are fully vaccinated (01/22/2022).
Berlin has the highest corona incidence of all federal states
Berlin currently has the highest corona incidence of all federal states. The number of corona cases in the capital has continued to rise sharply. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the incidence on Saturday was 1473.1 and the day before it was 1258.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 451,648 people in Berlin have been proven to be infected, the official number of people who have died from or with Covid-19 is 4082. However, the situation in the intensive care units is still under control – according to the Senate, 16 percent of the intensive care beds were with Covid -19 patients occupied.
This means that the incidence in the capital, where, according to the RKI, 14,087 new corona cases were recorded between Friday and Saturday, is almost twice as high as the average across Germany, where the Robert Koch Institute also reported a sharp increase in the seven-day incidence reported. The RKI gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Saturday morning as 772.7. For comparison: the previous day the value was 706.3, a week ago it was 497.1 and on the same day of the previous month it was 289.0.
The health authorities in Germany reported 135,461 new infections to the RKI within one day. This emerges from figures that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 5:01 a.m. A week ago there were 78,022 infections, an increase of almost 75 percent. Experts expect more and more cases that cannot be recorded, partly because test capacities and health authorities are increasingly at their limit. Since the omicron variant is milder, it is more important how many people become seriously ill and have to be treated in clinics. Therefore, the number of cases should be estimated in the future. According to the RKI, the number of deaths within 24 hours was 179, and a total of 116,664 people died in connection with the virus. (01/22/2022)
Doctors warn of the stress limit in clinics
In view of the rapidly increasing number of infections, medical representatives see the clinics at their limit in just a few days. “By the beginning of February at the latest, it will be very cramped in hospitals across Germany if the number of infections continues to rise at this rate,” says Susanne Johna, chairwoman of the Marburger Bund doctors’ union, to the newspapers of the Funke media group. It is not only about increasing patient numbers, but also about staff shortages in clinics, laboratories and rescue services. This could mean that the supply of the population will no longer correspond to the usual standard. (02/22/2022)
Rio de Janeiro postpones carnival to April
In the midst of a new corona wave, the Brazilian metropolis of Rio de Janeiro has once again postponed the world-famous carnival parades. The celebrations would be moved to the Tiradentes holiday on April 21, the city government said on Twitter. Mayor Eduardo Paes canceled the street carnival in Rio earlier this month for the second year in a row. The plans for the legendary parades in the Sambodrome in February and March, which were also postponed and then canceled last year, remained in place. There, controls to protect against infection are easier to implement, said Paes. A corona-related cancellation would mean another loss of millions for the city after the failure in 2021. According to estimates, the spectacle brings in the equivalent of around 620 million euros.
According to official figures, more than 23.5 million of Brazil’s 210 million inhabitants have been infected with the corona virus. Almost 623,000 patients have died related to Covid-19 – one of the highest death tolls in the world. As the vaccination campaign progressed, the number of new deaths fell sharply, and optimism grew, especially in Rio. Almost 70 percent of the Brazilian population is now fully vaccinated. Recently, the number of new infections has increased enormously, also influenced by the omicron variant and celebrations at Christmas and New Year’s Eve. On Wednesday, Brazil reported more than 200,000 new corona cases in one day for the first time. (01/22/2022)
Hundreds of thousands of surgeries postponed because of Delta
German hospitals estimate that operations had to be postponed or canceled for well over a hundred thousand patients during the delta wave. “We don’t have final numbers for the delta wave yet, but we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of treatments that have been postponed,” said Gerald Gass, CEO of the German Hospital Society Augsburg General. Many patients are on the waiting list. For the whole of the past year, more than a million postponed interventions must be assumed. (01/22/2022)
Children’s representatives concerned about taking children to Corona demos
The honorary chairman of Deutsche Kinderhilfe worries about children who are taken by their parents to demonstrations against the Corona measures. If it is foreseeable from the outset that there will be conflicts, “then children have no business there,” said Rainer Becker of the German Press Agency. In these cases, there could be a risk to the welfare of the child.
Scenes at demonstrations could traumatize the children. In principle, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child also grants children freedom of assembly and demonstration. This makes sense so that minors can be introduced to democracy. It is perfectly fine when children go to demonstrations organized by children and young people themselves. It is also okay to take children to a rally and discuss different opinions with them. However, children should never be instrumentalized and made into an “ideological mouthpiece”.
Becker referred to demonstrations in which children could be heard making speeches that did not suit their age. The former police director referred to paragraph 171 of the penal code. Accordingly, “the violation of the duty of care or upbringing is a criminal offence”. This should already be pursued officially. According to the law, police officers would have to determine the identity of children if they had the impression that they were being used. (01/22/2022)
Lauterbach – Three vaccinations are enough for basic immunization
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach does not anticipate that a fourth dose will be necessary after a triple vaccination has already taken place in the event of mandatory vaccination being introduced. “Anyone who has three vaccinations with mRNA vaccines or a similarly effective vaccine today or in the future has good basic immunization,” says Lauterbach, according to the Rheinische Post. The triple vaccination would therefore satisfy every vaccination requirement. There will be no compulsory vaccination. The government is only working on an obligation to provide proof of vaccination. (01/22/2022)