The next Corona summit is on Wednesday.
Virologist Sandra Ciesek pleads not just to look at the incidence value.
And comments on the British virus mutation.
Frankfurt / Hamburg - The next Corona summit is due on Wednesday.
And with it the decision to continue the corona measures.
In the run-up, the Frankfurt virologist Sandra Ciesek pleaded not just to look at the incidence.
This value indicates how many confirmed new infections there were per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days.
So far, a value below 50 was considered a benchmark for possible easing.
"But is the incidence alone really effective?", Asked Ciesek in the NDR podcast "Coronavirus Update" on Tuesday.
Virologist Sandra Ciesek: Before the Corona summit, advocates keeping an eye on the R value
"It is just as important that you look at the R value," said the director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the Frankfurt University Hospital: "So how many people are infected by an infected person." With a value above one, one must assume that Infections rise again as soon as more contacts are allowed.
If it is below one, it can be assumed that "loosening would not have such a negative effect."
The British variant of the coronavirus represents an additional factor of uncertainty. It is known that the mutation B117 is more contagious, explained Ciesek.
The R-value increases with increasing distribution.
At the same time, however, the number of infections with the wild type is falling.
"That is why it is currently very difficult to decide to what extent to loosen up and which areas to loosen up."
(Dpa)