As temperatures gradually cool, corona infections are increasing. An expert explains who this could be problematic for, what needs to be considered when getting vaccinated – and how contagious the new variants are.
Autumn and winter are just around the corner and with the start of the cold season, the number of corona infections will rise again. It is to be expected that there will be a wave of illnesses in the coming weeks, virologist Sandra Ciesek told the German Press Agency.
However, the situation is by no means threatening and cannot be compared with 2020 or 2021, said the doctor. There is no threat of bottlenecks in hospitals and intensive care units. “Basically, it’s like last year, only the variants and letters are different.” Nevertheless, a number of questions arise – for example regarding multiple infections, vaccination recommendations or the risk of infection from new virus variants.
According to a report by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the slight increase in corona cases in recent weeks has not continued recently. According to experts, there were an estimated 600 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the week starting September 9. So far, just over 5,640 corona cases have been reported to the RKI. Severe infections have been diagnosed primarily in older people.
For whom are multiple infections problematic?
It is not unusual for people to continue to become infected with the virus, even repeatedly, said Sandra Ciesek, director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt. “You don’t get respiratory diseases just once in your life, but again and again, some every year, some every two years.” The immunity that arises from a previous infection or vaccination decreases over time and people become susceptible to infection again.
Nevertheless, Corona should not be trivialized. According to the virologist, more infections also mean more serious cases. People with weak immune systems are particularly at risk. “Anyone who belongs to risk groups, who do not have a healthy immune system or who would expect a serious course of the disease, would do well to get vaccinated now so that they do not become infected during the wave,” recommended Ciesek.
People are still falling ill with Long Covid, as Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) said at a round table this week. However, because there is now a basic level of immunity in the population, the risk of falling ill with Long Covid is lower than it was at the beginning of the pandemic.
What should be considered regarding vaccinations?
The Standing Committee on Vaccination (Stiko) recommends that people aged 60 and over and adults with underlying diseases get a booster vaccination in the autumn.
According to Ciesek, those who want to be vaccinated should make sure that they are given a vaccine that is adapted to the variant currently circulating. According to RKI information, the JN.1 variant, a descendant of the Omicron variant, is currently dominant in Germany.
The subline KP.3.1.1 was recently detected most frequently. According to the RKI, this accounted for 62 percent of samples from the last two weeks of August.
Are the new virus types more contagious?
KP.3.1.1. is considered more contagious than previous variants. This is hardly surprising, said Ciesek. The virus continues to mutate and is always looking for new ways to infect people.
In the end, a variant will prevail that has some advantage and is, for example, more contagious – as in the case of KP.3.1.1. But that does not mean that the variant also makes people sicker, said the virologist. “There is no evidence of that at the moment.”
dpa/small