The seven-day incidence hits another record with 1283 new infections. Nevertheless, politicians and medical representatives are calling for relaxation. It is said that Germany must prepare for the falling number of cases.
Germany sets another record: On Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 236,120 new corona cases within the past 24 hours. This exceeded the previous high of 208,498 from the previous day. Meanwhile, the seven-day incidence on Thursday was 1283.2, up from the previous record of 1227.5 the previous day. As the RKI also announced, 164 other deaths related to the corona virus were recorded on Thursday.
On Thursday a week ago, the health authorities nationwide reported 203,136 new infections. The incidence was 1017.4 a week ago. The indicator quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over a period of seven days.
Hospitalization rate is almost 5
According to the RKI, the health authorities have recorded a total of 10,422,764 cases of infection since the beginning of the pandemic. The total number of registered corona deaths in Germany is now 118,334. The RKI puts the number of people who have recovered from corona disease in Germany at around 7,869,200.
In November, the federal and state governments had defined the so-called hospitalization incidence as the decisive benchmark for tightening or relaxing the corona measures. This value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants are hospitalized within seven days because of a corona infection. According to the latest RKI report, the hospitalization incidence nationwide on Wednesday was 4.77.
Söder insists on easing
Despite the new record incidences, there are increasing calls for the corona restrictions to be relaxed. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) told the “Bild”: “We should now take consistent steps to open up.” Specifically, he called for the nationwide abolition of the 2G rule in retail, the abolition of the obligation to test in restaurants and an increase in the upper limits for stadiums. Criticism of Söder came from the SPD.
Söder suggested checking contact restrictions in principle: “Where FFP2 masks are worn, contact restrictions can be reduced. The Federal Minister of Health has to draw up a step-by-step plan for this,” he told the “Bild”. Söder also sees a need for reform in the travel regulations. “Incidence has had its day as a benchmark at Omikron. With values as high as we currently have, travel regulations with reference to risk areas, for example, make little sense. The only thing that makes sense is testing after you return. That has to be adjusted.”
German Medical Association: Germany should prepare for falling case numbers
The German Medical Association also called for a step-by-step plan for opening steps. “If the infection process develops as epidemiologists predict, the number of cases will gradually decrease from the end of February,” said the President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, to the newspapers of the editorial network Germany. “The federal and state governments should therefore be prepared and, if possible, prepare phased plans for openings, which can then hopefully be implemented soon.”
At the same time, Reinhardt emphasized that the restrictions on public life are still unavoidable at the moment: “The situation in this country is simply different than in England or Denmark. Germany has the second oldest population in Europe and a low vaccination rate among older people compared to Denmark and England. ” In the age group over 60, twelve percent are still unvaccinated.
In England and Denmark, the restrictions have now been almost completely abolished. Italy and the Czech Republic also announced easing on Wednesday despite the high number of infections.
Politicians disagree on further easing steps
The CEO of the German Hospital Society (DKG), Gerald Gaß, spoke out against easing at the present time. “The hospitals are recording a sharp increase in the number of cases in the normal wards and even in the intensive care units more Covid patients are being admitted again,” Gass told the RND. “But of course we need clear prospects for openings in the near future, once we’ve got through the omicron wave,” he added.
Opinions differed in the traffic light coalition in Berlin. The deputy head of the FDP, Wolfgang Kubicki, urged that the corona measures be relaxed as soon as possible. “If there is no objective reason, the measures must end, and not on a specific date, but immediately,” Kubicki told RND. “We’re probably closer to that point than many think.”
Heike Baehrens, health policy spokeswoman for the SPD, saw no room for easing and opening plans. “We currently have the highest infection rate ever. It is therefore too early to name specific steps or a specific point in time,” Baehrens told RND. “I strongly advocate taking your time, because otherwise we’ll raise expectations that we can’t keep.”
Baehrens also criticized the fact that some federal states had once again decided to relax the restrictions on their own. “The crazy thing is that Markus Söder and Michael Kretschmer, who called for uniform, sharp measures just a few months ago, are now doing the opposite,” said the SPD politician, referring to the prime ministers of Bavaria and Saxony. In her view, the different messages are “part of our problem.”
Source: Stern
