Bavaria’s Minister of Health, Klaus Holetscheck, believes that it is possible for hospitals to wear masks at the end of February after the carnival season. In the capital Berlin, the mask requirement on buses and trains ends on February 2nd. You can find all the news in the Corona ticker on FOCUS online.
Tuesday, January 17, 6:16 a.m .: The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence on Tuesday morning as 87.9. This is evident from numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 5 a.m. The day before, the value of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 98.4 (previous week: 136.6; previous month: 251.7).
However, this information only provides a very incomplete picture of the number of infections. Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – mainly because by far not all infected people have a PCR test done. But only positive PCR tests count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations and transmission problems can lead to the distortion of individual daily values.
Within one day, the health authorities in Germany reported 17,222 new corona infections (previous week: 30,533) and 190 deaths (previous week: 287) to the RKI. Here, too, comparisons of the data are only possible to a limited extent due to the test behavior, late registrations and transmission problems. The number of registered new infections and deaths generally fluctuates significantly from weekday to weekday, since many federal states do not transmit them to the RKI, especially at weekends, and report their cases later in the week.
Monday, January 16, 4:05 a.m .: Bavaria’s Minister of Health, Klaus Holetscheck, believes it is possible that masks will end in hospitals at the end of February after the carnival season. He finds a corresponding proposal by the intensive care doctor representative Christian Karagiannidis “worth considering at the end of carnival,” said the CSU politician of the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Monday edition). . “In Bavaria, we are also closely monitoring developments with regard to hospitals, retirement homes and vulnerable groups,” explained Holetschek. “We will adjust the rules as soon as the situation permits,” he announced.
The Bavarian Minister of Health said he was in favor of relying on more personal responsibility and a high level of expertise in the facilities themselves. “The facilities know best which measures make sense for them,” emphasized Holetschek. The CSU politician emphasized that the lifting of the mask requirement in long-distance transport at the beginning of February, despite a possible worsening of the flu epidemic, was correct. “The legal situation is such that it is only possible to order a mask to be compulsory according to Section 28b of the Infection Protection Act in connection with Corona, not with influenza or RSV,” emphasizes the Bavarian Minister of Health. However, he still recommends wearing masks on trains, for example: “The mask also helps against the flu.”
Sunday, January 15, 4:10 a.m .: The Munich virologist Oliver Keppler considers early warning monitoring in Germany to be sensible and sufficient for the early detection of upcoming corona variants. From the scientist’s point of view, however, a corona test obligation at airports, as recently decided for travelers from China, does not make sense. “You can do that, but it doesn’t help; it’s more in the direction of actionism,” said the head of the Max von Pettenkofer Institute in Munich of the German Press Agency. “We can only determine whether a new variant will be relevant for the immunity of the German population with a multi-stage monitoring system.”
The system recommended by the virologist has three components: laboratory analyzes of patient swabs in university clinics, monitoring of respiratory infections in doctor’s offices and waste water analysis. “Bavaria has introduced this type of early warning system most intensively in Germany so far,” said the head of virology at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilians University. “The first arm is to swab all patients who come to university hospitals. This allows us to estimate how many Sars-CoV-2 infections we have and which variants are circulating at any given time.”
According to the doctor, the second arm is what is known as syndromic monitoring. “Across Germany, around 500 practices take swabs from patients with respiratory infections and send them to the state health authorities,” said Keppler. “Then we will know what proportion of this clinical picture is attributable to influenza viruses, RSV, Sars-CoV-2 or other infectious agents.”
The third arm of the early warning system is wastewater monitoring. “With these three complementary levels of infection surveillance, we can quickly identify whether there is a pathogen development relevant to our healthcare system and then respond appropriately.”
Saturday, January 14, 9:15 a.m .: The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence on Saturday morning as 104.1. This is evident from numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 5 a.m. The day before, the value of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week was 106.8 (previous week: 151.0 previous month: 231.2). However, this information only provides a very incomplete picture of the number of infections. Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – mainly because by far not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to a distortion of individual daily values.
The health authorities in Germany recently reported 10,609 new corona infections (previous week: 13,169) and 150 deaths (previous week: 170) to the RKI within one day. Here, too, comparisons of the data are only possible to a limited extent due to the test behavior, late registrations or transmission problems. In general, the number of registered new infections and deaths varies significantly from weekday to weekday, since many federal states do not transmit them to the RKI, especially at weekends, and report their cases later in the week.
2:09 p.m .: The mask requirement in Hamburg’s local transport will no longer apply on February 1st. The same applies to the obligation to isolate, the health authority announced on Friday.
1:55 p.m .: The mask requirement in local public transport in North Rhine-Westphalia will be lifted on February 1, 2023. A spokesman for the NRW Ministry of Health said on Friday the German Press Agency.
1:15 p.m .: The mask requirement in local transport in Lower Saxony and Bremen will no longer apply from February 2nd. The health departments of both federal states announced this on Friday.
11.05 a.m .: The mask requirement in long-distance public transport should fall on February 2nd. This was announced by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) on Friday in Berlin. The Federal Government can suspend the measure in whole or in part by statutory order. “We just have to rely more on personal responsibility and voluntariness,” said Lauterbach.
The demands for an early end to the mask requirement have recently become louder, within the federal government the FDP in particular insisted on it. According to the Infection Protection Act, the obligation to wear a mask in long-distance traffic should last until April 7th.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) said on Wednesday that the end had to come “as soon as possible” and also referred to the burden on railway staff due to the control of the Corona measure. This week, Deutsche Bahn also spoke out in favor of an early end to the obligation to wear masks in long-distance transport. Similar to air transport, long-distance trains should also be voluntary, it said.
Lauterbach had recently not ruled out a premature end to the mask requirement in long-distance transport and in health facilities. “It may well be that we will abolish the mask requirement earlier,” the SPD politician told the “Stern” without setting a date.
In local public transport, the mask requirement has already been abolished in Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein. Berlin, Brandenburg, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony and Baden-Württemberg plan to lift it by the beginning of next month at the latest.
After February 2nd, the mask requirement only applies in clinics, nursing homes, medical practices and other health facilities.
Surf tip: A conductor’s unbelievable tale of woe: “The train made me sick”
You can read older news about the corona pandemic on the following pages.
What you need to know What you can do. (Advertisement)
