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Father with children in front of a daycare center (archive image)
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
The delta mutation of the coronavirus, which appeared for the first time in India and is considered highly contagious, has led to quarantine orders in educational institutions in several federal states.
The city administration of
Dresden
had already reported corona cases in three educational institutions on Tuesday.
A daycare center, elementary school and high school are affected.
The starting point is the infections of three siblings who visit these facilities.
"A specific PCR test has confirmed that it is the Delta variant in the three cases," the city explained.
As a result, all contact persons were sent to quarantine: 21 children and five employees in the daycare center, 32 children and teachers in the primary school and another six young people in the secondary school.
The city expressly praised the affected family: They behaved "very responsibly" and immediately reported to the health department after an initial positive rapid test.
Corona case in student dormitory
However, there is expressly no connection to the death of a student who had returned from India in a dormitory on Hildebrandstrasse in Dresden.
The student dormitory, which is housed in a high-rise building, was temporarily completely quarantined at the beginning of June.
According to SPIEGEL information, the Delta variant was also discovered in a primary school
in
Hamburg
on Wednesday.
All the first classes of the school in the Lokstedt district were then sent home, the health department's investigations to identify contact persons are still ongoing.
There are at least 15 infected students at a grammar school in the
Hildesheim
district
. The NDR reports that the delta mutation has also been discovered in some of them. Accordingly, three years at the grammar school are affected. Most of those infected attend a class together.
Another case of infection is currently drawing circles in
Waiblingen,
Baden-Württemberg
. After a daycare child had tested positive there and the test results so far also speak in favor of the Delta variant, it was decided on Tuesday to quarantine all around 150 children and all employees of a city daycare center. A spokeswoman for the city confirmed to SPIEGEL that daycare operations in the affected facility would be suspended for the next two weeks.
SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach advised vigilance on RBB television.
"Especially with the Delta variant we saw in England that one percent of the infected children get so seriously ill that they have to be treated in hospital," said Lauterbach: "That is no small matter." Because children also suffer from severe long-term consequences - the so-called Long Covid - are threatened, Lauterbach demanded vaccination options for the youngest generation.
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