DThe Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the number of new infections in the past 24 hours on Friday morning as 248,838. This exceeded the previous high of 236,120 from the previous day. Meanwhile, the seven-day incidence on Friday was 1349.5, well above the previous record of 1283.2 the previous day.
As the RKI also announced, 170 other deaths related to the corona virus were recorded on Friday.
On Friday a week ago, the health authorities nationwide reported 190,148 new infections. The incidence was 1073.0 a week ago. The indicator quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over a period of seven days.
According to the RKI, the health authorities have recorded a total of 10,671,602 cases of infection since the beginning of the pandemic. The total number of registered corona deaths in Germany is now 118,504. The RKI puts the number of people who have recovered from corona disease in Germany at around 7,953,200.
All developments in the live ticker:
03:52 – First foreign tourists in Bali
For the first time since the border was closed almost two years ago due to Covid-19, foreign holidaymakers have landed on a direct flight on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali. However, the restart of tourism was sluggish: On Thursday, there were only six foreign holidaymakers and six Indonesians on the Garuda Indonesia plane coming from the Japanese capital Tokyo, as the newspaper “Jakarta Post” reported on Friday. At the same time, the government in the island state reported more than 27,000 new corona infections – more than in six months.
The authorities announced on Monday that they would reopen Bali to tourists from all over the world on February 4 for the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic. However, visitors cannot move freely on the island immediately: Anyone who has complete basic protection with the second syringe that is usually necessary must be in quarantine for five days in a hotel of their choice. Those who only have one primary vaccination must isolate themselves for seven days. During this time, tourists are allowed to at least move around the hotel grounds and do not have to stay in their rooms, said Bali’s tourism director Cokorda Pamayun.
2:10 a.m. – Nationwide lifting of 2G rule in retail
Employer President Rainer Dulger calls for a nationwide lifting of the 2G rule in retail. “It is unfair if one retailer has to check the 2G rule and the other doesn’t, if one retailer loses sales because of 2G and the other doesn’t,” says Dulger of the “Rheinische Post” according to a preliminary report. “That’s why we’re calling for a nationwide uniform repeal.” In some federal states, the courts have already reacted to the unequal treatment and overturned the 2G rule in retail.
02.00 a.m. – GKV demands recording of the vaccination status
Meanwhile, the Central Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV) has called on the federal government to initiate a systematic recording of the vaccination status of German citizens: “The pandemic will not be over in autumn and we as a society must start preparing for it now at the latest “Said Florian Lanz, spokesman for the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Friday editions). Targeted vaccination campaigns are dependent on information. So far, however, no one can say who is vaccinated and who is not.
“As part of the state vaccination campaign, even voluntary reminders of a necessary follow-up vaccination, for example by the health authorities, would not be possible,” said Lanz. “A necessary prerequisite for all further considerations would now be the willingness of politicians to create the legal framework for information on the vaccination status from medical practices and vaccination centers to be made available quickly and digitally,” the association demanded.
1:55 a.m. – Trudeau rules out the use of the military against opponents of vaccination for the time being
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ruled out military action against a group of hundreds of opponents of vaccination in the capital Ottawa for the time being. That’s not planned at the moment, Trudeau said on Thursday, slowing down the Ottawa police chief, who said military action was also an option. Trudeau stressed that one must be very careful when it comes to deploying soldiers on Canadian soil. However, if the city of Ottawa officially asks for support, such a step will be examined.
Thousands of opponents of mandatory vaccinations and other government corona measures came to Ottawa in trucks over the weekend and paralyzed the city with roadblocks. The city council is already talking about an occupation of Ottawa.
According to police estimates, 250 of the originally several thousand demonstrators held out on Thursday.
1:50 a.m. – Intensive care physicians criticize relaxation plans
Intensive care physicians warn of a “roller coaster ride” in the number of infections if the restrictions are relaxed too quickly. “Loosening of the corona measures, as some federal states have now announced, comes too early,” says the President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), Gernot Marx, of the “Funke Mediengruppe” according to a preliminary report.
The current measures have meant that the omicron wave in Germany is developing more slowly and not as steeply as in other countries. This success should not be jeopardized.
1 a.m. – RKI: 320,000 visits to the doctor in one week
The Robert Koch Institute estimates the number of doctor visits in Germany to be around 320,000 due to Corona in the past week. The RKI writes in its weekly report on Thursday evening that the values of the fourth wave are already significantly exceeded in almost all age groups. Since the turn of the year, the number of doctor visits has increased, compared to the previous week it stagnated, although late registrations are still possible.
According to RKI calculations, 0.9 to 1.8 percent of the population aged 15 and over had contracted Covid-19 with symptoms of an acute respiratory disease in the previous week. For children up to the age of 15, the Institute speaks of a proportion of those affected of around 1.6 to 3.2 percent. The RKI has been presenting such calculations for around two weeks – also because laboratories and health authorities are at the limit when recording infected people and it is assumed that the reporting data is becoming increasingly incomplete.
“We are dependent on press releases from the manufacturers”
When asked when an omicron vaccine can be expected, Stiko boss Mertens says at WELT: “We are currently dependent on press releases from the manufacturers. We know that Biontech and Moderna have started studies. But there is no data on that yet.”
“The 7-day incidence is still highest in the group of children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years”, but it has also risen significantly again in the older age groups, the RKI states. “The #Omicron wave is slowly reaching the elderly population,” the authority commented on Twitter. An increase among older people has also been feared for some time in view of a possible heavier burden on the healthcare system.
12:01 a.m. – KBV boss sees no immediate need for a second booster for everyone
According to the recommendation of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) for a second booster vaccination for people who are particularly at risk of corona, the chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, sees no immediate need for a booster vaccination for everyone: after three vaccinations, normal citizens are “probable very well protected against serious illness and death for a long time,” Gassen told the “Bild” (Friday edition).
For groups that are particularly at risk, on the other hand, it is “quite conceivable” that there “possibly there could be recommendations for recurring booster vaccinations in the future”. However, this would require “further data”.
In his opinion, however, the new Stiko recommendation is an argument against a general obligation to vaccinate. “Sustainable protection against infection, herd immunity or even virus eradication, which would speak in favor of compulsory vaccination from an epidemiological point of view, are obviously not achievable with the available vaccines,” Gassen told the “Bild”.