Status: 11/18/2021 7:16 a.m.
RKI boss Wieler described the corona situation in Germany as gloomy as never before. The number of actual new infections are three times as high as officially registered. For the first time, the RKI reported more than 60,000 new infections.
In an emotional angry speech, the President of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, painted a dramatic picture of the corona situation in Germany. The number of new infections is rising steeply and, according to Wieler, is even much higher than known. Hundreds of deaths can therefore soon be expected every day.
“The under-recording of the real numbers is increasing,” said Wieler on Wednesday evening in an online discussion with the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer. Behind the more than 50,000 infections that are currently being registered every day, “there are at least twice or three times as many.”
Most recently, 0.8 percent of the sick died. This means that of the more than 50,000 people infected each day, 400 would die in the next few weeks. “There is nothing more to be done about that.” At the federal press conference, he recently spoke more cautiously of 200 deaths per day, but the number is actually higher. Nobody can help these people, not even with the best medical care.
“We have never been as worried as we are now”
“We are currently in a serious emergency. We will really have a very bad Christmas if we don’t take countermeasures now,” said Wieler.
The situation in the hospitals is also getting worse and worse, according to Wieler. “We have never been as worried as we are now,” said the RKI boss. The number of seriously ill Covid patients is increasing, and people with a stroke and other seriously ill people have to search for a free intensive care bed for up to two hours in some places.
“The supply is already no longer in accordance with the rule in all federal states.” And that will increase. “As you can see, the prognoses are extremely bleak. They are really bleak,” said Wieler. “There is an emergency in our country. If you don’t see it, you’re making a very big mistake.”
Wieler accuses politics of negligence
The RKI made very clear recommendations for action at an early stage and warned that the fourth wave could clearly outperform all previous waves if no “population-related measures” were taken and the vaccination rate did not increase significantly. In fact, the modeled scenarios have now arrived.
Wieler accused politics of serious errors and omissions. “We opened too quickly in too many areas,” he criticized. “Clubs and bars are hotspots, from my point of view they have to be closed.” Major events would have to be canceled. There are far too many contacts among the population, and they already know from the first corona wave that contact restrictions are effective.
At the same time, Wieler pleaded for the consistent implementation of 2G rules, i.e. access to many areas only for vaccinated and convalescent people. “We really shouldn’t give those who don’t get vaccinated the chance to bypass the vaccination, for example by getting tested,” he said. In order to increase the vaccination rate, vaccination should also be carried out in pharmacies.
“Every man and mouse who can vaccinate should kindly vaccinate now”
“I’m going to say that now very clearly: It must now be the end of the story that someone does not allow any other professional groups to vaccinate due to any circumstances. We are in an emergency,” emphasized Wieler. “Every man and mouse who can vaccinate should kindly vaccinate now. Otherwise we will not be able to get this crisis under control.”
Wieler called on politics to finally act. “We don’t have to keep inventing something new. All of these concepts and recipes are in place,” he said. “That is clear language, but after 21 months I simply can no longer bear the fact that it is not perhaps recognized what I say, among other things, and also many other colleagues.”
For the first time more than 60,000 new infections
The number of new infections rose to a new high today and exceeded the 60,000 mark for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Accordingly, the health authorities reported 65,371 new infections to the RKI. A week ago, more than 50,000 new infections per day were counted for the first time. The RKI gave the 7-day incidence at 336.9 – also a high. For comparison: the previous day the value was 319.5, a week ago it was 249.1 (previous month: 74.4).
According to the new information, 264 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 235 deaths.
The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days – the most important parameter for a possible tightening of the corona restrictions – was given by the RKI on Wednesday at 5.15 (Tuesday: 4.86). With the indicator it must be taken into account that hospital admissions are sometimes reported with delay. A nationwide threshold value from when the situation can be viewed critically is not provided for the incidence of hospitalization, among other things because of large regional differences. The previous high was around 15.5 around Christmas last year.