The virologist Christian Drosten expects a very high number of new corona cases after the summer holidays in Germany. He told Der Spiegel: If nothing is done, there will be a lot of illness-related absences from work.
The required corona vaccination from the age of 60 is off the table. The proposal from Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria was not accepted at the conference of health ministers. “We will no longer pursue compulsory vaccination, not even from the age of 60,” said Federal Health Minister Lauterbach.
Austria has a corona vaccination requirement – but now wants to abolish it again. This was announced by Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) in Vienna.
Incidence in Hesse at 785.4
The seven-day incidence of new corona infections in Hesse has continued to rise. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the value is currently 785.4 after 667.9 the day before.
The Hessian health authorities only report the number of infections on weekends and public holidays on the following working day. This can lead to greater fluctuations in incidence.
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+++ Two out of three Germans for mandatory masks indoors from autumn +++
06/24/2022, 00:06
Two out of three Germans are in favor of making masks compulsory indoors from autumn to curb the coronavirus pandemic. The current Germany trend in the ARD “Morgenmagazin” also shows that older people in particular would like such a restriction to go back: 77 percent of those over 65 are in favor of such a mask requirement, but only 48 percent of 18 to 34 year olds.
Mouth and nose protection must currently still be worn in everyday life, especially on public transport. When shopping, in restaurants and pubs, however, the obligation no longer applies.
+++ Drosten fears very high corona numbers after the summer holidays +++
06/23/2022, 10:46 p.m
The virologist Christian Drosten expects a very high number of new corona cases after the summer holidays in Germany. He told Der Spiegel: If nothing is done, there will be a lot of illness-related absences from work. In addition, if the number of cases were very high, the number of hospitalizations and deaths would also increase again.
+++ RKI: Omicron variant now dominates in Germany +++
06/23/2022, 8:41 p.m
In the corona pandemic in Germany, the omicron subline BA.5 is now predominant. In its weekly report on Covid-19 on Thursday evening, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) speaks of a share of around 50 percent. However, this data refers to the week before last. Higher values can currently be assumed. The RKI also recorded a further increase in the seven-day incidence and a slightly increasing burden on the healthcare system. This applies in particular to intensive care medicine, it said.
+++ Corona vaccination requirement in Austria will be abolished +++
06/23/2022, 2:24 p.m
The corona vaccination requirement in Austria will be abolished. This was announced by Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) in Vienna. The law was late anyway on hold. “The obligation to vaccinate does not bring anyone to vaccinate,” said Rauch.
The compulsory vaccination was announced at the end of 2021 and applied from February. It was supported by all parliamentary parties except for the right-wing FPÖ. Austria was a pioneer in the EU. Other countries only had age-specific regulations. It was originally planned in Austria, starting March 15, to threaten anyone who refuses with a fine of up to 3,600 euros. But already at the beginning of March there were indications of a move away from the obligation to vaccinate. At that time, the government of the conservative ÖVP and the Greens declared that the requirement was not proportionate to the prevailing Omicron variant.
+++ Lauterbach: We will quickly come to an agreement on the obligation to wear a mask +++
06/23/2022, 12:25 p.m
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach is confident that the coalition can quickly agree on changes to the Infection Protection Act. Work is already underway on six points of his seven-point plan, and negotiations on the subject of the obligation to wear a mask will begin when the expert report on the evaluation of previous corona protection measures expected for June 30th is available, said the SPD politician on Deutschlandfunk. The FDP attached great importance to this. A meeting was then agreed for July 1st. “Once this report is available, we will come to an agreement very quickly, and I think even relatively quietly,” emphasized Lauterbach. The most important cornerstones should be decided before the summer break.
+++ Survey: Children and young people do less sport because of Corona +++
06/23/2022, 07:42 am
According to a new Allianz survey, the corona pandemic is having a negative impact on the sporting activities of children and young people. According to this, a good two-thirds of the 500 children between the ages of 5 and 15 surveyed did less sport during the pandemic than before, as the insurance group announced. Of 500 adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 24, more than half (51 percent) were less active than before the pandemic began. A major reason was that training was not possible in sports clubs for a long time.
+++ Ranking: Vienna again the most livable city – Frankfurt in the top 10 +++
06/23/2022, 01:38 am
After the corona restrictions were lifted, Frankfurt and Vienna have moved up significantly again in a ranking of the most livable cities in the world. In this year’s index of the British “Economist” group, Austria’s capital Vienna regained the top spot for the first time since the pandemic began. Frankfurt came in 7th this time and, along with Hamburg (16) and Düsseldorf (22), is one of the biggest winners in a year-on-year comparison.
+++ Association dampens expectations of the effect of drugs against Corona +++
06/23/2022, 00:17
The head of the German Association of General Practitioners, Weigeldt, has warned against overly high expectations of the effects of drugs against Corona. “Of course it is very gratifying that progress is being made in the development of effective drugs against severe Covid courses,” he told the editorial network Germany (RND). “But politicians shouldn’t give the impression that doctors just have to prescribe more anti-corona drugs and everything will be fine. This idea may be seductive, but it doesn’t correspond to the facts.”
+++ Lauterbach sticks to the citizen test plan +++
6/22/2022, 3:53 p.m
From the federal states and from social associations, calls for free tests continued to come to a conference of health ministers with Lauterbach in many places. On the fringes of the conference, however, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach confirmed his plan to move away from free corona citizen tests for everyone.
+++ Survey: Germany divided over the dangers of an autumn wave +++
06/22/2022, 1:10 p.m
According to a survey, the German population is divided about the dangers of a possible corona autumn wave. Half of the adults surveyed said they were not worried about being infected with a variant of the virus, according to a survey by the Yougov institute. On the other hand, 46 percent were concerned. Five percent did not provide any information.
+++ Study: The number of shoplifters continued to fall in 2021 +++
6/22/2022, 7:52 am
In the second Corona year 2021, the number of shoplifting in the German retail sector continued to fall. According to a study published on Wednesday by the Cologne retail research institute EHI, retail losses due to theft last year totaled 3.23 billion euros. That was around four percent less than in the previous year. In the first Corona year 2020, shoplifting even fell by around ten percent, not least because of the shop closures caused by the pandemic.
+++ Hesse calls for compulsory vaccination from the age of 60 +++
6/22/2022 7:33 am
New push for compulsory corona vaccination: Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are calling on the federal government to start a new attempt at the conference of health ministers starting today. The proposal, which Hesse also supports: compulsory vaccination should apply from the age of 60.
+++ Head of statutory health insurance against expansion of the mask requirement +++
06/22/2022, 07:09 am
Despite the increased number of corona infections, head of panel doctors Andreas Gassen spoke out against the extension of the mask requirement and against the continuation of citizen tests without cause. “The narrative was always that the health system should not be overloaded,” said the chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians to the editorial network before deliberations at the Conference of Health Ministers. Although there are now high numbers of infections, the course of the disease is mostly mild. “Many of those affected don’t even realize it.” Therefore, higher infection numbers alone could not be the basis for measures, “e.g. for a new mask requirement”.
+++ Minister of Health wants to restrict access to corona citizen tests +++
06/22/2022, 02:11 am
According to the will of Federal Health Minister Lauterbach, access to the free corona citizen tests should be significantly restricted. Only patients with symptoms should be eligible, as well as other selected groups of people such as small children and pregnant women. This emerges from the ministry’s “Corona Autumn Strategy”, which is available to the German Press Agency.
The free offer to all citizens is only fixed until the end of June.
+++ Court: December aids not for retail +++
6/21/2022 1:36 p.m
According to a court decision, the retail trade was not allowed to be included in the payment of the Corona December aid. The Berlin administrative court announced that different treatment of shops and companies is permissible when it comes to financial support in view of the lockdown due to the corona pandemic. While the need for material goods can still be covered later, visits to the restaurant or cosmetic studio cannot be made up for, it said. In doing so, they denied a shoe store with branches in several federal states higher state support. (Az: VG 26 K 129/21)
+++ State assumes a larger share of healthcare costs +++
06/21/2022, 09:33 am
An increasing part of health expenditure is financed by state transfers and grants. According to a publication by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, in 2020 15.7 percent of current health expenditure (67.9 billion euros) in Germany was paid for by the state. The share of state grants and transfers in total expenditure (431.8 billion euros) rose by three percentage points compared to the previous year. According to the statisticians, the cause of the increase was federal grants to combat the corona pandemic.
+++ Schufa: Consumers pay off loans reliably +++
06/21/2022, 07:47 am
Germany’s consumers have reliably repaid their installment loans in the second Corona year. As in the two previous years, 97.9 percent of all installment loans taken out were serviced in accordance with the contract, as can be seen from the risk and credit compass of the credit agency Schufa. In 2021, the pandemic had no negative effects on the indebtedness and over-indebtedness of people in Germany. For the first time since 2017, people took out more installment loans. Small sums in particular were in demand. Larger purchases, on the other hand, were postponed.
+++ Southern states and NRW: the federal government must enable stricter corona measures +++
6/21/2022 4:26 am
Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia are urging the federal government to quickly create the legal requirements for stricter protective measures in view of the threat of a corona wave in autumn. The traffic light must present an amendment to the Infection Protection Act before the summer break, according to a draft decision by the four countries for the conference of health ministers this week.
+++ Unusual number of flu cases in Rhineland-Palatinate +++
06/21/2022, 03:49 am
In Rhineland-Palatinate there are currently an unusually high number of flu cases for the season. Since the beginning of May, 206 cases have been detected, the state investigation office in Koblenz told the German Press Agency. For comparison: In the same period last year there were 3 cases, in 2020 there were 17 and in 2019 there were 58 cases in the list.
Most of the corona protective measures in public life were eliminated at the beginning of April.
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