The number of corona cases is falling.
At the same time, concerns about the Delta variant are growing.
One minister does not rule out a return to contact restrictions.
Munich - An important key figure of the coronavirus is at the level of August 2020: the seven-day incidence.
The corona situation in Germany is easing.
However, a glance at the delta variant shows that the danger posed by the virus has not yet been averted.
Furthermore, caution is advised, as politicians and experts advise.
Coronavirus: return to contact restrictions?
- Danger from Delta variant
"We can now loosen up," said Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) on Sunday evening in the ARD program "Report from Berlin".
The Federal Minister of Health is concerned with the right balance with a view to the Delta variant.
The mood should therefore not lead to high spirits.
"So: Confidence for the summer, but also caution, especially towards autumn and winter," he announced.
If you take a look at other European countries, it becomes clear: The delta variant could bring further restrictions with it.
In Great Britain, for example, the easing planned for June 21 has been postponed.
The Portuguese capital Lisbon was cordoned off over the weekend (June 19).
More than 60 percent of all newly recorded corona infections were due to the delta variant (as of June 20)
In Germany, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder issued a gloomy delta forecast for July.
Hesse’s Prime Minister Volker Bouffier made a similar statement: “I expect the Delta variant to be the predominant variant in a month's time in Germany too,” he told the
editorial network in Germany
.
It cannot be ruled out that people will return infected from their summer vacation.
The question also arises as to how the corona vaccine affects the variant.
The answers to this question depend on “whether we will get a fourth wave and go back to contact restrictions.
We cannot rule that out. "
+
The Prime Minister of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, does not rule out renewed contact restrictions.
© Arne Dedert / dpa
Corona mutation: Delta variant worries experts
World Medical Chief Ulrich Montgomery had previously warned of the Corona variant.
He, too, fears rapid spread.
"The tricky thing about this variant is that infected people very quickly have a very high viral load in their throat and can thus infect others before they even notice that they are infected," he said.
Further expert opinions in the overview:
Virologist Martin Stürmer
told
Focus Online
: “This situation is [...] roughly comparable to the time before the third wave. At that time, despite the percentage increase in the alpha variant (B.1.17), it was relaxed further. ”However, there are also differences: the currently significantly warm weather and the higher proportion of those vaccinated. "I think the most important thing at the moment is not to loosen up too much."
Christian Karagiannidis (President of the German Society for Internal Intensive Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine) told the
Rheinische Post
: “If the number of infections rises again in autumn, we will have to look very closely at the new admissions to the intensive care units. If the vulnerable groups are very well vaccinated by then, there could be much less severe courses even with higher incidences.
Epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs advised
Focus Online
with regard to the Corona variant
: “If there is a constant trend reversal, we should consider possible selective tightening of the measures.
A good measure would be 50 newly infected people per 100,000 inhabitants. ”As of June 21, only three regions in all of Germany have a seven-day incidence of 35.
According to
Focus Online
, the virologist Friedemann Weber described the Delta variant
as "worrying".
One should "refrain from further easing", according to the virologist.
Fourth corona wave?
- "Federal government must not oversleep the summer"
Meanwhile, opposition politicians called for a concrete timetable. "The political failure that we had to experience last year due to missing air filters in schools, full buses and trains and far too little protection at work must not be repeated," Amira Mohamed Ali (left) told the
world
. Janosch Dahmen (Greens) also demanded: "The federal government must not oversleep the summer and must now prepare Germany for autumn." There is a race between vaccination speed and new mutations.
The Federal Association of Doctors in the Public Health Service takes a similar view. This calls for good preparation for a possible fourth corona wave. “Nobody knows whether and to what extent there will be a fourth wave. But when it comes, we should be well prepared for it: It is very important that the health authorities now get additional specialist staff quickly, ”said chairwoman Ute Teichert of the
Rheinische Post
.
(dpa / mbr)