Switzerland lifts the latest measures to contain the pandemic. The government announced that the mask requirement on public transport and health facilities, as well as the isolation requirement for infected people, would be abolished on Friday. Thanks to the high immunization of the population, there has been no significant increase in Covid 19 patients in intensive care units in recent weeks, although the number of infections has increased again in the meantime. However, greater vigilance and responsiveness will continue to be required until spring 2023. (30/03/2022)
Citizenship declares Hamburg a corona hotspot
The Parliament of Hamburg declared the Hanseatic city a corona hotspot. A corresponding motion by the government’s red-green majority was accepted with support from the left; CDU, AfD and FDP voted against. With the hotspot rule, the obligation to wear masks indoors and in retail stores in Hamburg will be maintained for the next four weeks.
Lauterbach: Commitment on mandatory vaccination will come
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach expressed confidence that a compromise can be reached for the introduction of general vaccination against the crown in Germany. As far as he knows, a joint proposal is being worked on, said the SPD politician. He hopes this will reach his ministry no later than the next few days so that a joint outline can be formulated. The lines of compromise that are emerging are compelling and wise.
He is “very confident” and assumes this important law can be applied, added Lauterbach. Much would depend on that in view of the situation in autumn. Lauterbach did not provide further information about the compromise lines.
So far the Bundestag is expected to vote next week without the usual specifications of parliamentary groups, so far no majority has been secured for any proposal. A project by a group of deputies for general vaccination from the age of 18, which Lauterbach also supports, has the most support. In addition, there is a project of a group for mandatory counseling and a possible mandatory vaccination from the age of 50. Other group application rejects duty. The Union and the AfD also submitted applications. (03/30/2022)
The national incidence value falls below 1700
The national seven-day incidence of corona virus infections dropped slightly: the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the value of new infections per 100,000 population and week on Wednesday morning at 1663. The day before the value was 1703. German health authorities reported 268,477 new corona infections to RKI in one day. Another 348 people died in connection with the virus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 129,112.
However, the numbers are only of limited significance. Experts assume a high number of cases that are not recorded in the RKI data. Testing capabilities and health authorities are on edge in many places, contacts are only traced to a limited extent. That’s why we use the SZ Corona Dashboard to show an average value from the last seven days’ reports, which is intended to compensate for day-to-day fluctuations. You can find more information about this on the transparency blog, more data and graphs about the pandemic here. (03/30/2022)
Lockdown: Shanghai closes neighborhoods ahead of schedule
The administration of the Chinese port city of Shanghai is isolating the western parts of the city two days earlier than planned. The lockdown for this area of the city of 26 million people was due to go into effect on Friday. But the situation in the east of the city alarmed the authorities. Although districts east of the Huangpu River have been closed since Monday, authorities are reporting 5,656 new asymptomatic corona cases and 326 symptomatic cases. The day before, there were 4,381 without or 96 new cases with symptoms. People across the city should stay home unless tested, the city’s health commission said. Not even to walk your pets or take out the trash.
Shanghai is now becoming the test case for China’s zero Covid strategy, which has been severely tested by the most contagious omicron variant since the start of the year. Until then, authorities had successfully tackled smaller outbreaks with local curfews, mass testing, contact tracing and quarantine. That’s not enough anymore.
The new wave of infections and the lockdown are also preventing IPOs worth billions. Last week alone, 15 companies withdrew their applications from listing on the Star Market tech exchange for the time being, as the stock exchange documents show. (03/30/2022)
Clinics report six percent of their staff for lack of vaccination or proof of recovery
According to a media report, hospitals reported an average of six percent of their staff to health officials for lack of proof of vaccination or recovery. This was the result of a representative survey by the German Hospital Society (DKG) among nearly 400 clinics, which is available to the German editorial network.
“The survey numbers show very impressively that our employees have an extraordinarily high and exemplary vaccination rate compared to the general population,” said DKG head Gerald Gass. However, he didn’t move all-clear. Given the growing number of corona-positive patients and illness-related absences among hospital staff, restrictions on patient care “cannot be avoided,” he explained.
More than half of hospitals (53%) expect patient care to be restricted if reported staff need to be released. In Germany, vaccination has been mandatory for health care workers since mid-March. Those who are not vaccinated are threatened with a ban on employment without proof of vaccination or recovery. (03/30/2022)
SZ editors have enriched this article with external content
load content now
Revoke consent and reload the page
Advocates for patients criticize countries’ “cry”
Patient advocate Eugen Brysch urged countries to act quickly on the corona pandemic. “The prime ministers’ screams and their fingers pointing at the federal government are in no way justified,” the board of directors of the German Patient Protection Foundation told the Rheinische Post. State governments did nothing to stop the Infection Protection Act, which they have now strongly criticized. Now they were stuck in a stalemate in which they would have maneuvered themselves.
He called the NRW government “strangely speechless” – apparently they didn’t know what to do with the law’s new possibilities. Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) said on Tuesday that he sees no leeway to designate the entire NRW as a legally secure corona hotspot and thus create more security across the country.
Starting Sunday, federal states can only have a few general protective rules, such as masks and testing at facilities like clinics and nursing homes. However, you can impose more restrictions for regional hotspots, for example with more masking requirements and access rules, if the state parliament determines a critical situation there. However, several countries complain that there are no legally secure criteria for this. (03/30/2022)
Lauterbach: EU will recommend fourth vaccination for everyone over 60
The treatment of a possible fourth corona vaccination should be aligned across the EU. The EU Commission “will draw up a recommendation for the fourth vaccination within a very short period of time based on scientific experience,” Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) said after a meeting with his EU colleagues in Brussels. . Most of them supported his proposal to align national vaccination strategies. The European Commission’s recommendation, which could be available within seven days, could “also be an important compass for Germany to deal with the second impulse”.
Lauterbach had previously announced a fourth corona vaccination for everyone over 60. In this age group, mortality can be reduced by an additional 80% compared to the third dose, according to data from Israel, Lauterbach said. The EU Commission must make a corresponding recommendation in cooperation with the European Medicines Agency, for example. “As far as the pandemic is concerned, the situation in Europe is worse than people feel,” Lauterbach said. The war in Ukraine is also drawing attention.
Lauterbach emphasized that there is currently a lot of vaccine in Europe that is not lacking anywhere. The take-off of low-income countries is stalling. “So we have to fear that vaccines in Europe will have to be destroyed.” The Moderna or Biontech/Pfizer vaccine is an option for the fourth dose – that is, the second “boost” after basic protection. According to Lauterbach, the development of vaccines adapted to the new variants of the crown is being postponed. He expects the new vaccines in the fall, possibly in September.
In Germany, the fourth dose is currently recommended for people over 70 and for people with risk factors such as immune deficiencies. Nothing will change about that, Lauterbach said. The only question is whether the age limit will be lowered. However, the fourth dose cannot be recommended for those under 60 years of age because there is no data on this. With Germany in mind, Lauterbach had already advocated a more offensive approach to four vaccinations last week. So far, only ten percent of people who would be eligible for it have had such a thing. That was “unsatisfactory”. He therefore asked the Standing Commission on Vaccination (Stiko) to review its recommendation for the fourth vaccination. Stiko promised that. (29/03/2022)
Denmark abolishes post-entry testing
Even the latest minor corona restriction is now a thing of the past in Denmark. On Tuesday, the regulation was lifted, according to which you had to be tested no later than 24 hours after entering the country. However, this obligation only applied to unvaccinated and unrecovered persons wishing to enter the country from outside the EU and the Schengen area. This means that there are no more restrictions on entering Germany’s northernmost neighboring country.
In Denmark, life has been virtually free of restrictions since February 1 – around that time, the government in Copenhagen decided to lift most restrictions on the corona despite the record high number of new infections. The two main reasons for this were the milder course of the disease after omicron infections and the high number of Danish vaccinations. Only a few entry restrictions continued to apply, but they were also gradually lifted.
Crown numbers in Denmark have dropped sharply again – but there are also significantly fewer tests than before. The seven-day incidence in the country of six million people was at times over 5,000 but has recently dropped to just under 640. (29/03/2022)
Laboratories: Percentage of positive PCR tests remains high
There are still no signs of abating the contagion in German laboratories. Out of a total of about 2.2 million PCR tests last week, more than every second test was positive again, according to the Association of Accredited Laboratories in Medicine (ALM). The so-called positive rate was estimated at around 56% for the second time in a row, which is an all-time high. The association confirmed that “significant statistical underreporting of people suffering from corona can be assumed”. A high positive rate is generally considered an indication of many undetected infections. (29/03/2022)