The corona situation is still relaxed, but one thing is complicated

Coronavirus
Fear of variant

In China, the number of corona infected and deaths is exploding. The situation seems to still be relaxed here, but there is also a worrying development here.

2 minutes moment of reading

2023-01-04 04:30:00

There is no reliable data from China. Only one thing is clear: the country with its 1.4 billion inhabitants is currently inundated by a devastating wave of the corona virus. Experts assume that several hundred million people will be infected and tens of thousands will die from Corona in the coming weeks.

At the same time, fears are growing that new variants of the virus will appear in China, which could reignite the pandemic here too. For this reason, many countries – such as the USA, France and Great Britain – have made the test mandatory for travelers from China. Germany not (yet).

Here, the discussion is currently on two fronts: some – for example virologist Christian Dorsten – say that the pandemic is becoming endemic in this country, as most people now have a high level of immunity protection . This results in the political call for the lifting of all corona protection measures, such as the obligation to wear masks.

The others see the danger of a new wave not yet banned. They advise waiting and would like Germany to make tests mandatory for those who come to us from China. The Association of German Federal Medical Officers belongs to this circle.

Whoever is right is finally open. However, it is helpful to look at the data and facts when assessing the situation. And they say there are still at least 150,000 new corona virus infections in Germany every week, as has been the case for more than a year. While the number isn’t rising right now, there’s no guarantee it will stay that way for the rest of the winter.

The situation is similar with the number of people who die from or with the corona virus. Here, too, there are no major leaps at the moment, but the same is true here: Week after week, several hundred people in Germany are still dying from the corona virus. In the week between December 27 and January 2, there were 884.

A look at the intensive care units is downright concerning. More corona-infected people are currently being treated and ventilated here than at any other time since the end of October.

And a look at the incidence of hospitalizations of corona patients (number of hospitalizations of corona-infected people per 100,000 inhabitants over the past seven days) does not bode well. In the last six weeks it has increased very significantly in all federal states.

A small ray of hope is the fact that the 7-day incidence of new corona cases has decreased again in several federal states in the past six weeks. However, NRW is one of the federal states with increasing numbers.

With incidence data, however, it must be taken into account that they are only conditionally significant for two reasons. On the one hand, there have been far fewer tests than before for weeks. On the other hand, we currently have to live with the consequences of the holiday gap, which is known to cause delays in reporting.