AIn view of the incidences, which have been increasing for days, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach has warned against being too careless about the development of the corona virus and is urging that important protective instruments continue to be used. “I share the concern of many scientists: we have to reckon with a summer wave,” the SPD politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group on Saturday. The omicron and delta variants are so infectious that even when the weather is good, many contacts and decreasing vaccination protection could lead to an increase in the number of infections if there were no longer any restrictions. Doctors and local authorities continue to believe that certain precautions – some of the citizens themselves – still make sense.
Lauterbach emphasized that the countries must have the opportunity to react early to the coming waves. These included mask requirements and contact restrictions. “It should be possible to set upper limits for private meetings and public events as well as access rules for restaurants, for example” – i.e. access only for vaccinated and recovered people (2 G) or additionally with a test (2 G plus). It is important to be able to continue to enforce test rules in public spaces and in companies. “All these instruments should only be used when they are actually necessary,” said the minister. “The state parliaments would then have to determine that.”
According to a relaxation plan decided by the federal and state governments, “all more profound” restrictions are to be lifted on March 20th, if the situation in the clinics allows it. The nationwide legal basis for such measures expires on March 19. A new basis for a basic protection that is still necessary in spring is currently being discussed. In the traffic light coalition, the FDP has expressed reservations about allowing more extensive restrictions in the future. Further restrictions were only relaxed on Friday – for example for restaurants, hotels, clubs and discos.
RKI reports another increase in incidence on Sunday
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has reported an increase in the nationwide seven-day incidence for the fourth day in a row. The RKI gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Sunday morning as 1231.1. For comparison: the day before the value was 1220.8. A week ago, the nationwide incidence was 1240.3. The health authorities in Germany reported 116,889 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. This is evident from numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 05:02 a.m. A week ago there were 107,913 infections.
Experts assume a high number of cases that are not recorded in the RKI data. One reason is the limited capacity of health authorities, for example, and contacts are often only tracked to a limited extent. In addition, according to the ALM laboratory association, there is now a larger number of people whose infection is no longer confirmed by a PCR test – these infections are therefore not included in the official statistics.
According to the new information, 51 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. A week ago there were 57 deaths. The RKI has counted 15,666,900 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 go undetected.
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