A Rewe branch in Bayreuth had to close because 18 employees were infected with Corona.
An analysis now shows: visits to the supermarket are not without risk.
Munich - open, close, click & meet.
In Corona times, retail is forced to reinvent itself week after week.
One of the few constants: supermarkets.
The supply of food and products for daily needs must be guaranteed.
Even if the risk of infection is apparently not insignificant even with Aldi, Edeka and Co.
This is also indicated by the corona outbreak in a Rewe in Bayreuth last week.
Because 18 employees there are proven to have been infected with the corona virus, the market has been closed since last Wednesday.
Customers shouldn't be affected.
At least the responsible district office assumes this.
The risk for this is "negligible" because "there was usually a sufficiently large distance," said a spokeswoman.
Corona outbreak in Rewe: According to an analysis, 30 percent of the contacts take place in the supermarket
So are you halfway safe from Corona in the supermarket?
Based on an analysis of anonymized GPS and mobile phone data, the Berlin data company NetCheck found that around 30 percent of contacts can be traced back to encounters in the food retail trade.
This reports
Focus.de
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In no other area were more contacts measured.
In this context, the company even speaks of an "underestimated, central adjustment screw" in the corona pandemic.
Supermarkets are an underestimated key factor in the corona pandemic.
Data company NetCheck
NetCheck therefore recommends, among other things, admission restrictions, extended opening times and more staff in order to be able to consistently implement hygiene requirements.
Wearing a mask alone does not rule out infection.
Because: The risk of infection comes not only from larger droplets from the mouth and nose, but also from small virus particles that get into the air when you exhale.
These so-called aerosols can still be infectious hours after leaving the store.
Corona risk in the supermarket is higher than at the hairdresser or in public transport
In order to be able to correctly classify the corona infection risk in Rewe, Aldi & Co., scientists from the Technical University compared the reproduction numbers of different indoor spaces in February.
Study leader Martin Kriegel and his colleagues concentrated on common places such as theaters, restaurants and schools.
The main influencing factors taken into account are the length of stay, the level of activity and the air supply in the room.
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The risk of infection should be lower at the hairdresser's than in the supermarket.
© Tom Weller / dpa
"It is of great interest to compare typical situations with one another in order to get a general impression," explains Kriegel. “It is a simple assessment model, but it is based on a detailed infection risk model that has been validated on real outbreaks.” According to this, the calculated reproduction value is around 1. That means: Under the current Corona measures, an infected person is at most one additional customer in the supermarket. In comparison, the risk is similar to that of a restaurant visit (r = 1.1) and significantly greater than, for example, at a hairdresser (r = 0.6) or in public transport (r = 0.8). According to the study, classrooms are particularly dangerous (r = 2.9).
(jn)