The current corona wave seems to be over, but the upcoming winter is making Health Minister Karl Lauterbach worry. Lauterbach expects the situation to deteriorate again in the coming months, including the proclamation of a new one “epidemic situation” threatens.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) concludes the declaration of a “epidemic situation” not off in winter. “I hope that there won’t be a serious change of variant – if it doesn’t happen, then we won’t get into such an epidemic situation”said the Minister of “world on Sunday”. Nevertheless, Germany needs emergency funds and measures against the pandemic.
“Many people mistakenly believe that during a pandemic only the lighter variants will prevail. That is a mistake”, explained Lauterbach. There is no so-called selection advantage for lighter variants. “We have to be ready for anything.” There are already between 100 and 150 corona deaths per day in Germany, said the SPD politician. “My concern is that this number could increase.”
Corona: Karl Lauterbach expects difficult winter months
The health minister expects the situation to worsen in the coming months: “The Corona autumn will not be a bed of roses”, he said. The BA.5 variant of the corona virus will bring an increase in the number of cases, at least initially – especially when it gets colder and people spend more time indoors. “There will then be failures in the companies and the critical infrastructure, for example in hospitals – so we are facing difficult times”the minister warned.
In addition, Lauterbach defended himself against criticism of the planned mask requirement for students from the fifth grade. “It is incompatible with my job as Minister of Health that children are becoming ill in large numbers. Infecting an entire generation is irresponsible”, he said. It’s about millions of children. “We don’t yet know what this infection does to the children’s immune systems when it occurs repeatedly. As a society, we cannot take the risk of mass infections in schools.”
In preparation for autumn and winter, the federal traffic light coalition agreed on a new infection protection law a few days ago. This provides for nationwide rules such as wearing FFP2 masks in long-distance passenger transport. However, the federal states can set their own requirements, for example for a mask requirement in publicly accessible indoor areas or outdoors if a minimum distance of one and a half meters cannot be maintained there.
Disagreement about new corona measures
As the “picture”-Zeitung on Saturday, citing a query to the federal states, they disagree about indicators for the application of stricter corona measures. Thus, different indicators for the acceptance of the concept of a “concrete danger” for the functionality of the health system or other central areas.
The state of Berlin therefore wants to rely on a mixture of different key figures, including the development of the number of cases, hospital occupancy and staff shortages in the critical infrastructure. Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony also want to be guided by the situation in the clinics. The majority of the federal states loudly “picture” has not yet determined any indicators for further corona measures and is still hoping for nationwide criteria.
Source: Stern
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