Lauterbach for preferential vaccination of primary school teachers

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Karl Lauterbach: "We must not lose control a few months before the population is vaccinated"

Photo: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / REUTERS

Despite the growing risk of infection from mutated corona viruses, Karl Lauterbach is in favor of gradually reopening primary schools and daycare centers from mid-February under strict protective measures.

Daycare and elementary school children can hardly be expected to accept certain restrictions in the long term, the SPD health expert told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

"That is why you should consider switching to alternate classes in elementary school," says Lauterbach.

To protect teachers, children and parents, he suggested corona antigen tests in school classes as well as "giving preference to primary school teachers".

Lauterbach, however, spoke out against other far-reaching openings in everyday life.

A significant relaxation is "simply far too dangerous," said the trained epidemiologist.

"We must not lose control a few months before the population is vaccinated," warned Lauterbach.

"Otherwise we also risk the spread of variants against which the vaccinations have little effect."

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will consult with the Prime Ministers of the federal states on next Wednesday about how to proceed in the corona pandemic.

The current lockdown is limited to February 14th.

It is unclear whether it will be extended or whether it will be relaxed for the first time.

Lauterbach said the current measures were "sufficient to slowly reduce the number of cases."

However, according to him, the R value, which describes how many people an infected person infects during his illness, is "still too high to limit the dangerous mutation variants".

Their share of the infections is even increasing.

The goal must therefore be to achieve a seven-day incidence of less than 25 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants and an R value of less than 0.7.

»In this combination you can achieve that the standard variant continues to decline and at the same time the mutations do not spread exponentially.

The health authorities can also control the situation well, "said Lauterbach.

The nationwide seven-day R-value estimated by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) was 0.93 on Friday evening.

According to the RKI, the number of new infections reported within seven days per 100,000 inhabitants was 77.3 on Saturday morning.

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wit / AFP