corona pandemic
Incidence at record level – BDI boss criticizes corona policy
Siegfried Russwurm, President of the Federation of German Industries e. V. (BDI), sharply criticizes the corona management. Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The new infections continue to rise. Furthermore, many people are unvaccinated. The federal government’s goal of vaccinating 80 percent of the population by the end of January is on the verge of failure.
The nationwide seven-day incidence reported by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) exceeded the threshold of 1100 for the first time. The RKI gave the value of new corona infections per
100,000 inhabitants and week on Saturday morning with 1127.7.
For comparison: the day before the value was 1073.0, a week ago it was 772.7 (previous month: 205.5). The health authorities in Germany reported 189,166 new infections to the RKI within one day – a week ago there were 135,461 infections.
Two years ago – on January 27, 2020 – the corona virus was first confirmed in Germany. Since then, more than 9.6 million infections have been registered, and around 118,000 people have died from or were involved in an infection. Several protests against government measures to contain the crisis and the introduction of compulsory vaccinations were expected again on Saturday.
Criticism of Corona management
The President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm, criticized the previous pandemic management. “After two years of Corona, it is completely unacceptable that there is not enough current data, PCR test capacities and uniform hygiene concepts for school classes,” Russwurm told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Saturday). “And some decision-making surprises me. We experience corona summits of the federal and state governments with great unity – and a few hours later state-specific variants of the decision. » That leads to a loss of trust and a patchwork quilt that nobody understands anymore. Russwurm said: “I wish for more systematic. Germany just doesn’t get ahead of the wave.”
Due to the rapid spread of the Omicron virus variant, the clinics are preparing for numerous new patients. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder therefore called on the federal government to set new and reliable standards for assessing the situation. Since the seven-day incidence in the current omicron wave, which has been the focus so far, is also losing its warning effect due to a lack of test options, “we need a new evaluation system that should be based on the occupancy of the hospital beds,” said the CSU boss “World on Sunday”. “This is the only way we can find out whether the healthcare system will remain stable – or whether it will be overburdened.”
The number of vaccinations in Germany has meanwhile decreased. As can be seen from RKI data, at least 370,000 vaccine doses were administered on Friday – the day before there were 466,000. There were almost 582,000 vaccinations on Friday a week ago, and around 769,000 on the previous Friday. 63 million people or 75.7 percent received at least one dose of vaccine. The goal of the federal government to vaccinate 80 percent of the population at least once against Corona by the end of January can hardly be achieved.