Analyze, track, stop
In addition, politicians are using new levers. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) wants to have all positive PCR tests analyzed and not just take random samples in order to be able to better follow the path of spread.
This is exactly what is happening in Düsseldorf, where a pilot study has been running since spring: at the university clinic, laboratory samples are analyzed within 48 hours and the results are forwarded to the health department. Conclusion so far: All Düsseldorf patients were infected abroad without causing further infections in the city.
Border closings do not make sense in this case because the mutant has long since arrived in the country. But possible chains of infection could be stopped quickly in this way.
Don’t discuss, act
And speed is what counts: when a new variant comes, you have to “Act very quickly very early on in a regionally differentiated manner and do not first consider whether this variant will prevail“This is how modeler Dirk Brockmann describes it in the WDR.”This is a unique opportunity to keep numbers at a low level so that you can open up sensibly.“
Brockmann’s conclusion: react quickly instead of discussing and, above all, use the summer months. Because the numbers are still low – by autumn it could be too late.
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