German politicians are on the alert. “We have a dark cloud of very serious danger in the background,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert on Monday in Berlin. Virus type B117, which is probably much more easily transmitted, has already occurred several times in Germany. Chancellery chief Helge Braun (CDU) said on Sunday in the ARD program “Anne Will” that the mutant would “take the lead” in Germany as well.
How far the virus type B117 has already spread in Germany is difficult to say. The SARS-CoV-2 mutant can only be determined by genetic sequencing. In Great Britain this has been done continuously with many rehearsals for months, hardly in Germany. The same is true of the B1351 mutant, which was discovered in South Africa. Both variants are considered to be much more contagious than the original.
There was already clear evidence of the two mutants in 30 cities or municipalities in Germany. The largest outbreak so far was currently (as of 8:30 a.m., January 26) a total of 29 in Berlin detected. In the Reinickendorf district, around 1,500 employees of the Humboldt Clinic were quarantined because 22 patients and employees had tested positive for the British coronavirus variant B117. In addition, there are a family member and a neighbor of previous patients at the hospital as well as three affected persons who are connected to the Charité.
There are also two cases in the Vivantes Clinic in Spandau. A man was transferred there from Reinickendorf and has been isolated since then. “It cannot be ruled out that further cases will be found in the tests that are now being carried out across the board,” said Vivantes boss Danckert.
In Cologne, all positive corona tests have been checked for mutated viruses since last week. The newspaper “Welt” reported. In 15 cases, the researchers found the virus variant that was first discovered in England and in four cases the variant that first appeared in South Africa.
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The mutations are in North Rhine-Westphalia already widespread relatively often. Type B117 was detected in 37 cases in the state, type B1351 a total of five times. Ten cities or districts are affected. Outbreaks occurred in Leverkusen, in the Oberbergischer Kreis and in Solingen, among others. The daily mirror has compiled the data from the district offices and from its own research.
In Baden-Wuerttemberg returnees from South Africa are infected with the mutation that is common there. Local media report that. A total of six infections in three families are known to the authorities – five in the Zollernalb district, one in the Calw district. Further cases were discovered according to Tagesspiegel information in Stuttgart (2) and Konstanz (2). The mutant B117 has so far been found in six cases in four locations in the state.
In the other federal states only very isolated cases have so far been proven. In whole Bayern the mutant B117 was detected twice in Munich and once in Bayreuth. In whole Hessen six such cases are known in Schleswig-Holstein also six and in Lower Saxony four.
The South African corona mutation first reached Wednesday Saxony. There was a corresponding case at the Leipzig University Hospital. The Leipzig city administration announced on Thursday that strict quarantine measures were immediately imposed on the person concerned and tracking of the route of infection began. In the meantime, a total of nine people in Leipzig have tested positive for it. There is a B117 case in Dresden.
In Saxony-Halt the mutant B1351 was detected twice in Halle and in Hamburg there was a case.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia and Rhineland-Palatinate and in Saarland there is still no known case of virus mutations.
Basically, a virus like SARS-Cov-2 mutates constantly, de facto in every single body that has been infected. Most mutations do not change the properties of the virus. This is different with these two types: They are much more contagious and could require even stricter protective measures.
“Get significantly lower numbers of infections quickly”
Government spokesman Seibert therefore said on Monday: “We are now in a very difficult situation.” There is a pleasing decline in the number of infections and the number of Covid intensive care patients. The health authorities reported 6729 new corona infections to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) within one day. “These are the first successes for all of us in this second wave,” said Seibert.
“At the same time, we have the great and very real risk that the virus mutant will continue to prevail in our country as well as in other countries and that the numbers could be greatly increased again.” One must reckon with the further spread of the Mutant won’t miss it.
Seibert therefore gave a further reduction in corona infections as the primary goal. “We have to get to significantly lower numbers of infections as quickly as possible.” To interrupt the good path now – “That would be just wrong”.
Seibert was cautious about the question of a general opening of schools. If the number of infections allowed easing, schools and daycare centers would be the first to reopen. But to achieve this goal, everyone would have to pull together and first of all continue to implement the restrictions decided by the federal and state governments.
Alerts of 100,000 new infections per day
The SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach said in the “Bild” format “The right questions”: “You have to assume that, viewed over a month, these three variants are six to eight times as contagious. And when I then extrapolate the current figures, I quickly come to the scenario that Christian Drosten has calculated. “
In the worst case, the virologist had expected 100,000 new infections per day in the “Spiegel” newspaper if the lockdown ended too early. Among the new infections registered within 24 hours, the highest value was reported on December 18, at 33,777 – but this included 3500 late reports. Since then, the numbers have dropped significantly.
Lauterbach warned: “We will need a very hard and very well-functioning lockdown because the new variants are of a completely different caliber. They have a completely different threat potential. ”Like Drosten, Lauterbach does not assume that the summer will largely stop the spread of the virus.
In view of the situation, isolated calls for a lockdown to end in mid-February were blocked over the weekend. “The threat situation is still too great,” said the new CDU chairman Armin Laschet, for example. (with dpa)
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