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Corona news on Thursday: The most important developments on Sars-CoV

2021-06-20T08:36:08.096Z


The RKI registered 105 new coronavirus-related deaths within 24 hours. And: In the third corona wave, more than 1.5 million days of childhood illness were reported. The overview.


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Reference to a corona test center on Sylt

Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / localpic

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More than 1.5 million days of childhood illness in the third corona wave

4.30 a.m.:

Numerous parents took sick leave in the third corona wave because daycare centers and schools were closed. Current figures from the largest German health insurance companies, which are available to the German Press Agency, show that between January and May of this year more than 1.5 million days of childhood illness were taken by parents because the facilities were not in operation or only to a limited extent.

During this time, pandemic-related children's sickness benefits were applied for more than 600,000 times, as the AOK-Bundesverband, Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), Barmer and DAK-Gesundheit announced on dpa request.

According to the data from the health insurance companies, parents used the offer particularly heavily in February.

The numbers then continued to decline in the following months as the school and day-care center opened up.

According to Barmer, parents took an average of two to three childhood illness days a month.

Because of the corona measures, politicians had tripled the number of children's illness days in the current year and allowed them to be taken not only when a child is sick, but also when schools and daycare centers are closed or emergency operations.

Child sickness benefit amounts to 90 percent of net earnings.

Virus variant Delta continues to increase in Germany

3.40 a.m.:

The Coronavirus variant Delta has significantly increased its share of the Sars-CoV-2 new infections in Germany within a week. At 6.2 percent in calendar week 22 (May 31 to June 6), it remains relatively rare, according to the latest report by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). In the previous week, the proportion of the Delta variant in the samples examined, including late reports, was 3.7 percent.

With a share of a good 86 percent of the samples examined, the alpha variant (B.1.1.7, discovered in Great Britain) continued to cause the majority of infections nationwide in the first week of June.

However, their share is slowly falling.

The other worrisome variants beta and gamma still only play a subordinate role.

You can find out more about the latest RKI report on the spread of the delta variant in Germany here.

UN: German braking on vaccine patents hinders the fight against pandemics

1:55 a.m.:

According to the UN development organization UNDP, Germany and other countries are slowing down the fight against the corona pandemic by blocking the release of patents for vaccines.

"Intellectual property rights are an obstacle to the accelerated distribution and production of vaccines," said UNDP boss Achim Steiner of the German press agency.

Admittedly, there are always concerns about attempts such as the patent release, but "risk is not a reason not to act now."

The release of patents must be considered as one of several measures to counter the blatant inequality in the distribution of vaccines.

At the last G7 summit in Cornwall, Germany and Great Britain again opposed the patent release, which could enable license-free vaccine production in developing countries.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said in May that this was not a solution to make vaccines available to more people - it requires the creativity and innovative strength of companies, and the protection of patents is a prerequisite for this.

Politicians and experts criticize the requirement to wear a mask in schools

1:10 a.m.:

In view of the falling incidence numbers and the heat wave in Germany, politicians and experts are in favor of an end to the mask requirement in schools.

  • "With the current decline in the infection rate, the mask requirement should fall depending on the incidence," says

    Thomas Fischbach, head of the professional association of paediatricians of

    the "Bild" newspaper.

  • “Masks have a protective function, but they also limit.

    Schoolchildren cannot fully recognize facial expressions and gestures, they sweat and get bad breath, ”says

    CDU family politician Marcus Weinberg.

  • Infectologist Peter Kremsner

    , head of the Curevac study, also suggests omitting the masks "in view of the current low incidences."

    "Especially if the vaccination rate continues to rise so rapidly that the parents and the elderly are protected." Children themselves have practically nothing to fear, as they would contract Corona less often and less severely.

    Regular testing also gives additional security.

  • “A blanket mask requirement in schools must be dropped.

    Our children have already suffered enough in this pandemic, "says

    FDP health politician Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus

    .

Corona

vaccine from Curevac misses effectiveness targets

00.01 a.m.:

In an effort to launch a highly effective corona vaccine, the Tübingen-based pharmaceutical company Curevac suffered a serious setback.

According to an interim analysis, the vaccine candidate CVnCoV only achieved a preliminary effectiveness of 47 percent against corona disease "of any severity" and thus did not meet the specified statistical success criteria, the company announced in a mandatory announcement on Wednesday evening.

You'll find more about it here.

aar / dpa / Reuters

Source: spiegel

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