News about the corona pandemic: VdK for further protection of corona risk groups

News about Corona from January 30, 2023

Social association VdK for further protection of Corona– The risk group

Monday, January 30, 3:15 a.m.: In view of the end of the corona mask requirement on long-distance trains at the beginning of February, the social association VdK insists on continued important protection for risk groups. President Verena Bentele told the German Press Agency that people with previous illnesses, disabilities or old age are concentrated in health and care facilities and are particularly at risk. Masks should therefore continue to be worn there. “Some employees or residents may find this a burden, but our consideration is clearly in favor of a mask requirement.”

Bentele explained that many people, especially those with previous illnesses, were still worried about a possible infection on buses and trains. Although everyone can decide for themselves to continue wearing a mask there, the protection is limited. Therefore, tailor-made solutions should be considered. “For example, separate areas that are reserved for people who want a mask would be conceivable,” said the VdK President. “In the ICE there are already comparable divisions with rest areas or areas for mobile phones. Then everyone can decide for themselves whether or not to wear a mask and go to the designated area.”

The nationwide obligation to wear masks on long-distance trains and long-distance buses is stipulated in the Infection Protection Act until April 7th, but according to plans by the federal government, it should be abolished on February 2nd. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) justified this with the stabilized pandemic situation. However, he wants to stick to the existing mask requirements in clinics, practices and nursing homes, while the co-governing FDP calls for an earlier end to further corona measures.

DAK: sick leave in Thuringia at a record level

Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 9:22 am: Cough, runny nose, Corona: Many Thuringian employees called in sick last year. The DAK even recorded the highest level of sick leave to date. According to a survey by the health insurance company DAK, the number of illness-related absences from work in Thuringia rose to a record level last year. At 6.6 percent, the sick leave rate was the highest since the surveys began 25 years ago, as the health insurance company announced on the basis of data from its employed insured persons. According to the information, 66 out of 1000 employees were on sick leave every day. The national average was 5.5 percent.

In 2021, the sick leave in Thuringia was still 5.1 percent. On average, employees missed almost 24 days with sick leave last year, around 5.3 days more than in 2021. Most of the absences were due to respiratory diseases such as colds and bronchitis, which had increased drastically, it said. There was an increase of 129 percent. In addition, more sick leave was recorded because of Corona.

The all-time record for employee absenteeism is alarming and should be a wake-up call for the Free State economy, said Marcus Kaiser, head of DAK-Gesundheit in Thuringia. The high level of sick leave is exacerbating the increasing shortage of personnel and skilled workers. “Health in the workplace must be given high priority this year.”

According to the DAK-Gesundheit, the increase in sick leave in Thuringia is partly related to the electronic reporting of sick leave. Since the beginning of 2022, sick leave reports have been sent directly from the doctor’s office to the health insurance company and no longer have to be submitted by the insured person themselves. Yellow slips of paper were no longer left with insured persons and would now probably be recorded more frequently in the statistics.

According to the DAK-Gesundheit, around 130,000 people are insured in Thuringia. For the absence analysis, the data of more than 50,000 employed members were evaluated.

Stark-Watzinger sees alarming long-term consequences of school closures Corona

Saturday, January 28, 9:30 a.m.: According to Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP), three years after the first corona cases in Germany, there are still dramatic consequences of school closures during the pandemic. “The findings we have are alarming,” she told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Saturday edition). 65 percent of the affected children and young people still have significant learning deficits.

“These 183 days when schools were partially or completely closed were wrong,” said the FDP politician. “It must not be repeated.” As a lesson from the pandemic, the education system must be fundamentally better positioned and made more crisis-proof.

According to Stark-Watzinger, the long-term consequences of the closures are not just the sometimes large learning deficits. There is also “loneliness, psychological problems and weight gain among many students”. The minister said that many children and young people from socially disadvantaged families were particularly affected by the long-term effects. They now need a lot of support – “otherwise we run the risk of losing them”.

AfD calls for contact point for people with vaccination damage

10:55 p.m.: According to the AfD parliamentary group, a specialized contact point for people with vaccination damage in Lower Saxony is necessary. A motion to this effect was tabled in the state parliament on Friday. These positions should be set up primarily at the country’s university clinics, said AfD member of parliament Jozef Rakicky. You have to give people like that a place to go.

In the application, the opposition faction calls on the state government: “To have side effects and vaccination damage from corona vaccinations carefully recorded by the responsible authorities and, in particular, to ensure that the corresponding regulations of the Infection Protection Act are consistently observed.”

In Lower Saxony, however, such vaccination damage is extremely rare. So far, corona vaccination damage has been recognized in 22 cases, the State Office for Social Affairs, Youth and Family said on request. Almost 470 applications have been received so far. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), almost 19.4 million corona vaccinations have been administered in Lower Saxony since vaccination began a little more than two years ago.

The Green MP Tanja Meyer said that there are already general practitioners, specialists and health authorities for such concerns. “We don’t need a new parallel structure.”

Anyone who suffers permanent damage to their health as a result of a recommended vaccination is entitled to care according to the rules of the Federal Health Care Act. For this, the health disorder must be recognized as a vaccine damage. According to the State Office, the health damage claimed is diverse.

Accordingly, the spectrum ranges from general weakness, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, migraines and painful reddening to strokes and pulmonary embolisms.

The Lower Saxony state office cannot provide any information as to whether the applications were made by those affected or by their survivors. It is therefore sufficient for recognition if a causal connection between the vaccination and the damage is “probable”. It does not have to be proven that the damage can only have been caused by the vaccination.

RKI weekly report: Less Corona-Cases and less severe courses

Friday, January 27, 6:23 a.m.: The number of officially confirmed corona cases in Germany has continued to fall significantly in the past week. The nationwide seven-day incidence has fallen by 30 percent compared to the previous week, reports the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in its Covid 19 weekly report on Thursday evening. “At the beginning of the new year, the downward trend continued, with a sharp fall in the number of cases in the first few weeks of the year,” writes the RKI.

The incidence alone is now considered to be of little significance, but the trend is confirmed by other indicators. According to the RKI, the number of patients who have been treated in hospital with a severe acute respiratory infection and a Covid 19 diagnosis has been falling for weeks. In addition, the occupancy of the intensive care units with Sars-CoV-2 infected people continues to decrease.

Increases are observed in certain virus variants in Germany. Among other things, the proportion of the omicron subline XBB.1.5 is growing. The RKI reports this with a view to the most recent evaluation of samples from the week before last. XBB.1.5 is already more widespread in the USA, for example. The level in this country is still relatively low at almost five percent. In the past week, the RKI had spoken of a good two percent share. According to the analysis, more severe courses of the disease in this context are not known to date.

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