Status: 01/19/2022 06:59 a.m
With 112,323 cases, the number of daily new corona infections in Germany exceeded the 100,000 mark for the first time. The incidence increased to 584.4. Minister of Health Lauterbach does not expect the situation to ease until February.
For the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic, more than 100,000 new corona infections were transmitted to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) within one day. According to the RKI, the health authorities reported 112,323 cases in 24 hours. Exactly one week ago, 80,430 new infections were recorded. According to the RKI, the seven-day incidence increases to 584.4. This is also a new high. For comparison: the day before, the nationwide incidence was 553.2, a week ago it was 407.5 (previous month: 315.4). The value quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in a period of seven days.
More than 8.1 million infections
According to the information, 239 further deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours. This increases the number of people who died from or involved a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 to 116,081. The RKI put the number of people who had recovered at 7,098,400. The RKI has counted 8,186,850 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic. The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected. According to the RKI, the number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days rose to 3.17 from 3.14 the day before.
The peak of the omicron wave has not yet been reached
The rapid increase in the number of cases is due to the contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, which is now also prevalent in Germany. However, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach expects that the omicron wave will only reach its peak in a few weeks. “I think we will reach the peak of the wave in mid-February, and then the number of cases could fall again,” says Lauterbach on RTL. “But we haven’t reached the peak yet.” Lauterbach also assumes that the nationwide seven-day incidence is significantly higher than the reported value. The number of unreported cases should be “roughly a factor of two,” said the SPD politician.
Daniela Huzly, virologist at the Freiburg University Hospital, on the development of the omicron variant
Morning magazine, January 19, 2022
Lauterbach for compulsory vaccination from April or May
He shares the opinion of experts such as the Berlin virologist Christian Drosten that at some point everyone will become infected, said Lauterbach. However, that does not mean that vaccination is unnecessary. “There is still no basic immunity, especially for the elderly and sick,” said the Minister of Health. He therefore called for a quick decision by the Bundestag to introduce compulsory vaccination. “If we want to make an application that still works, then it will make vaccination compulsory in April, maybe in May, because those who have not yet been vaccinated still have to go through three vaccination cycles,” said Lauterbach. “And then you’re already in September or October.” It has to be done quickly so that he can still avert the wave in the fall, said the Minister of Health. Lauterbach also warned that more new variants of the corona virus could emerge by the fall. “Then we would be left empty-handed when we again have the large number of unvaccinated people that we have to protect to prevent the health system from being overloaded.”
Kubicki sees Omikron as an opportunity
Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki sees the current wave of infections as an opportunity. “We are currently experiencing with the omicron wave that the chance of a return to pre-corona life is greater than ever,” said the FDP politician of the “Heilbronner Voice”. He believes “that we are seeing the first foothills of the endemic disease and that carefree life will return over the course of the year”. He reiterated his opposition to compulsory vaccination. The chairman of the German Hospital Society, Gerald Gass, also spoke out in favor of reviewing the need for vaccination in view of the apparently less severe course of the disease in the case of an infection with the omicron variant. According to Gass in the “Handelsblatt”, the Ethics Council based its vaccination recommendation on the no longer dominant, deadlier Delta variant. “If, after weighing the scientific findings, politicians should come to the conclusion that the pandemic is over and that vaccination is therefore no longer required, then there will be a new situation,” he said. “If Corona is really only seen as a flu, then the virus must be treated as such – and there is no vaccination against the flu for medical staff.”
Corona peak – Lauterbach wants vaccination soon
Vera Wolfskkampf, ARD Berlin, January 19, 2022 7:45 a.m
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