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Read the latest news about the corona crisis below:

6.01 – Smart bracelet detects early corona contamination

UMC Utrecht is researching a smart bracelet that can detect infection with Covid-19 at an early stage. The hospital is only looking for 20,000 adults to participate in the study. It is the so-called Ava bracelet, which is normally used by women to monitor fertility.

The researchers are hopeful that the device can help in the fight against corona. The bracelet continuously measures indicators such as temperature, heart rate and respiration. Before the wearer has symptoms, the device can already report an infection. The wearer is notified to be tested. “A higher temperature can indicate the onset of fever and coughing and shortness of breath also have a direct effect on breathing. A change of these factors together may indicate an infection with Covid-19 ”, says Rick Grobbee, professor of clinical epidemiology at UMC Utrecht. He’s in charge of the investigation.

Participants wear the bracelet at night. “This is the first smart device to process real-time data. And that is important because if you detect a Covid-19 infection at an early stage, you can immediately go into quarantine, which means that you are less likely to infect another. This technology could play an important role in containing this pandemic and identifying infectious diseases in the future, ”said Grobbee.

6.00 – Number of new corona infections in Germany slightly down

The number of new corona cases in Germany is slightly lower than Thursday. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German counterpart of the RIVM, registered 21,573 new corona infections on Friday morning. A day earlier, 22,657 new cases were reported, up from about 16,000 on Wednesday. This was the largest increase in the number of cases since January 9.

In total, the coronavirus has been diagnosed in 2,734,753 people in Germany since the start of the pandemic. In the past 24 hours, another 183 people died from the effects of Covid-19. The corona virus has already claimed more than 75,000 lives in Germany.

In Germany, the lockdown will in principle run until April 18. However, states have extensive powers to make their own policies. For example, the German state of Saarland announced on Thursday that it would end the lockdown after Easter. Cinemas, sports centers and restaurants with outdoor space may open their doors again, but visitors do need a negative result of a rapid corona test.

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