The corona virus keeps the world busy: Germany is trying to cope with the situation with a crisis team. And Great Britain is bringing together the health ministers of the G7 countries. The situation on Monday at a glance.
The spread of the newly discovered omicron variant of the coronavirus is causing concern around the world. In order to discuss the current developments, Great Britain has called an unscheduled meeting of the health ministers of the leading western economies (G7) for Monday, as the British government announced on Sunday evening. The time of the deliberations and in what form they would take place was initially unclear. Great Britain will hold the chairmanship of the G7 countries until the end of the year. In addition to Germany and France, Italy, the USA, Canada and Japan also belong to the alliance.
In the meantime, cases of the variant have emerged in a number of countries – including Germany. At the weekend it was detected in three travelers in Munich by the Max von Pettenkofer Institute. According to the Ministry of Social Affairs, the case of another returnee from South Africa was confirmed in Hesse. In North Rhine-Westphalia there are first suspected cases in Essen and Düsseldorf. The UK, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Italy also reported cases. Omicron infections were found in 13 travelers in the Netherlands.
Incidence hits record again
In Germany, the seven-day incidence has reached another high. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) stated the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Monday morning as 452.4. For comparison: the previous day the value was 446.7, a week ago it was 386.5 (previous month: 64.3). The health authorities in Germany reported 29,364 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. This is evident from the numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 03:34 a.m. Exactly one week ago there were 30,643 infections.
According to the new information, 73 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 62 deaths. The RKI has counted 5,791,060 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not recognized.
The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI on Friday as 5.97 (Thursday: 5.79). The value is not reported on the weekend. It plays an essential role in assessing what is happening in the infection. If limit values 3, 6 and 9 are exceeded in the federal states, stricter measures to combat the pandemic can be imposed there.
The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered on Monday at 4,852,800. The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 100,956.
First countries introduce travel restrictions
The Berlin virologist Christian Drosten said on Sunday evening in the ZDF “heute journal” that he was “quite worried” about the new variant. One doesn’t know too much about them. Reports of mild courses do not yet have a lot of substance in view of only a good 1000 cases, according to Drosten. Here you have to wait for the clinical course. You can see, however, that it occurs frequently among young people in South Africa and also affects people who have already had an illness. He is worried that the first real “immune escape mutant” is in front of him.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had previously classified the variant, which was first discovered in southern Africa, as “worrying”. The EU health authority ECDC speaks of serious concerns that Omikron could significantly reduce the effectiveness of corona vaccines and increase the risk of reinfection. The exact effects of the mutant have not yet been determined.
Where Omikron has appeared everywhere
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Several countries have already reintroduced stricter travel restrictions. The federal government drastically restricted entry from eight countries in southern Africa. South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi and Lesotho have been classified as virus variant areas since Sunday. Airlines are essentially only allowed to carry German citizens or people living in Germany from there to Germany. A two-week quarantine obligation applies to those entering the country, which cannot be shortened by negative tests – also for those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered.
The USA will also be restricting entries from the countries of southern Africa from this Monday. President Joe Biden was due to announce further possible US reactions later in the day. Just a few weeks after the strict corona entry regulations were relaxed, Japan is also closing its borders again for foreigners because of the Omikron variant.
South Africa criticizes the reactions of the countries
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa criticized the travel restrictions on Sunday evening as unjustified. “These restrictions are unfair discrimination against our country and our sister states,” said Ramaphosa in a televised address, appealing for the decisions to be reconsidered “before they cause any more damage”. It is a clear departure from the declaration made at the G20 summit in Rome to help underdeveloped states cope with the impact of the pandemic on their economies. The previous corona restrictions have already had a devastating impact on the economy in South Africa. The travel restrictions imposed by many countries hit the country particularly hard shortly before the important summer season.
Last Thursday, South African virologists announced the discovery of the new variant. They were puzzled because the nationwide incidence suddenly skyrocketed from just under two percent to nine percent.
Traffic light coalition plans Corona crisis team
In order to bring the infection process under control in Germany, the future traffic light coalition is planning a Corona crisis team in the Chancellery. This could start work in the next few days and thus before the government of the SPD, Greens and FDP takes office. According to the words of FDP boss Christian Lindner, the permanent federal-state committee is to start in the new week, SPD boss Saskia Esken named “soon” as the time horizon on Twitter. There is still a dispute as to whether there should be a quick federal-state meeting due to the extremely tense situation, which has become even more acute due to the newly emerged Omikron variant, and whether the infection protection changed by the traffic light parties is sufficient to trigger the fourth corona wave break.
A general should be at the head of the crisis team, as Linder said on Sunday evening on the ZDF program “Berlin direkt” and on “Anne Will” on ARD. According to a report in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Monday) Major General Carsten Breuer is under discussion for the management of the staff. The 56-year-old is the commander of the Bundeswehr Territorial Tasks Command, which is responsible for domestic operations by the armed forces.
The President of the German Association of Cities, Markus Lewe (CDU), called for the municipalities to participate. “The new Corona crisis team has to start immediately and the cities belong at the table,” Lewe told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Monday). “The expertise of the cities is indispensable for this, because this is where the work is done and the corona measures are implemented on site,” emphasized Lewe.
No curfews, but contact restrictions
Politicians from the Union, SPD, Greens and FDP were united in their demand to massively reduce contacts and cancel large events. The still managing Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) also renewed his demands for comprehensive 2G rules throughout the country and for an immediate Prime Minister’s Conference (MPK) on the ARD program “Anne Will”. “The virus does not forgive half-heartedness,” warned the CDU politician.
Another MPK is not planned until December 9th, an earlier convocation was recently disputed among the federal states. Green leader Annalena Baerbock made it clear in principle that one could not wait until December 9th. The crisis team will be set in motion and in the next few days we will see whether the countries implement the options that the Infection Protection Act gives them. If that is not the case, one has to act through the MPK or in parliament. All measures would have to be taken to massively restrict contacts so that the healthcare system does not collapse.
The Green health expert Janosch Dahmen believes that further steps to protect against infection are necessary due to the worsening of the corona situation. “The executive and new federal government will have to deal with which additional regulations need to be initiated in the short term in order to support the already possible protective measures to enable an even more consistent fight against the pandemic,” said Dahmen of “Welt”. He told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “The decision of the traffic light in the Bundestag can only have been the first.” The federal government and the states would have to talk about how to ensure that the necessary measures are also introduced and monitored. “And we have to do that before December 9th,” demanded Dahmen.
The SPD and FDP see the states asked to exhaust the possibilities of the Infection Protection Act. SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dirk Wiese told the German press agency: “We must first see for a few days whether and how the measures of the Infection Protection Act work.” The health policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sabine Dittmar, told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Monday): “The federal states have all legal options in hand to impose restrictions in public and private areas. They must use them resolutely.” FDP parliamentary group vice Michael Theurer called on the prime ministers to exhaust the “full instrument kit of the Infection Protection Act”.
FDP leader Lindner was skeptical about curfews. They have a very high social price with not clearly proven benefits, he said on ZDF. A decision by the Federal Constitutional Court on constitutional complaints against the federal corona emergency brake from the spring is expected on Tuesday. Lindner emphasized that one would evaluate very carefully what was compatible with the Basic Law. The presumably new Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) emphasized at the weekend with a view to combating corona that there was nothing that was not taken into account.