live blog
Status: 01/16/2022 01:54 am
Health Minister Lauterbach warns against underestimating the situation in the clinics. In the UK, 16 and 17 year olds can now get boosters. All developments in the live blog.
1:54 am
Austria again corona high risk area
The federal government has again classified Austria as a corona high-risk area. The regulation has been in effect since midnight and has concrete consequences: Anyone entering Germany from a high-risk area and who does not have at least full basic protection with the second vaccination that is usually necessary or has recovered must be in quarantine for ten days. You can get rid of it with a negative test after five days at the earliest. For children who have not yet reached the age of six, the quarantine ends automatically five days after entry.
The upgrade due to high corona numbers affects almost all of Austria, as the Robert Koch Institute announced on Friday. Exceptions are the communities of Mittelberg and Jungholz near the border as well as the Riißtal in the community of Vomp and Eben am Achensee.
This means that all nine of Germany’s neighboring countries are now on the risk list.
1:31 am
Great Britain expands booster campaign
England’s health authority has announced that it will now offer the booster vaccination to all 16 and 17 year olds. So far, only high-risk patients in this age group have been able to receive a booster vaccination.
According to Health Minister Sajid Javid, more than 80 percent of adults in England are now on boosters.
1:23 a.m
“Africa is not the rest ramp for expired vaccines”
Development Minister Svenja Schulze condemns donations of vaccine doses with a short shelf life to developing countries. “Africa is not the rest ramp for expired vaccines,” says Schulze, according to a preliminary report to the newspapers of the Funke media group. Plannable deliveries are necessary in order to be able to vaccinate the vaccine. You can only defeat the pandemic if the whole world is vaccinated. “If this doesn’t succeed, we go into an endless loop with ever new mutations.”
1:23 a.m
Lauterbach warns of “difficult weeks”
In view of the omicron wave and the low vaccination rate in Germany, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach warns of a high number of deaths and massive restrictions on hospital treatment. “We are threatened with very difficult weeks in Germany,” says Lauterbach of “Bild am Sonntag” according to the preliminary report.
At the moment it was mainly the younger people with many contacts who fell ill. But as soon as the elderly become infected, the number of hospital admissions will increase again. Then the space in the intensive care units and in the normal wards could become scarce. In international comparison, Germany has an older population with many chronically ill people. This is “fire hazard”.
In the interview, he also said that, in his opinion, compulsory vaccination should include three injections. This is the only way to be protected against all corona variants – at least against serious illness and death. “The obligation to vaccinate must be based on this,” said the SPD politician.