Corona incidence falls again - experts split opinions while waiting for Omicron vaccine for children

Created: 12/15/2021 Updated: 12/15/2021, 8:34 AM

The vaccinations for five to eleven year olds are starting in Germany.

The manufacturers want to adapt the vaccine to the new Corona variant.

The news ticker.

• According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) *, the incidence has fallen again.

• In the pandemic *, the focus is now on the children's vaccine.

• Should you wait for an omicron vaccine with them?

  Expert weigh up.

• This news ticker on Corona * in Germany is continuously updated.

Berlin - The trend is pointing further down: the nationwide 7-day incidence has fallen again compared to the previous day.

The RKI gave the value on Wednesday morning as 353.

The day before it was 375, a week ago it was 427.

The RKI now reported 51,301 new corona infections nationwide within one day.

Exactly one week ago there were 69,601 infections.

453 new Covid deaths were recorded within 24 hours.

The hospitalization rate is currently 5.21 (Monday: 5.17).

Waiting for Omicron Vaccine for Children?

Depending on age and health

In addition to many booster vaccinations *, the focus is currently also on children's vaccinations - some are already vaccinated.

From the point of view of the professional association of paediatricians, parents can, depending on the age and health of their children, wait for an Omikron vaccine to be available from spring.

"We do not generally recommend the vaccination to healthy children between five and eleven years because of the residual risk of still unknown rare side effects", said association spokesman Jakob Maske of the dpa.

"Therefore, in this case, we also advocate waiting for the time being."

The specialist in microbiology, virology and infection epidemiology Jana Schroeder (Mathias-Spital Foundation, Rheine) advises against it.

Germany still has a problem with the Delta variant.

“The vaccination works much better against them than against Omikron.

At the moment it is also still unclear whether Omikron will completely displace Delta. "

With a child from the age of 12, on the other hand, you can definitely start vaccinating.

"I wouldn't wait for an omicron vaccine," said Maske.

Scene from a test center: the number of corona cases is declining.

© Sebastian Kahnert / dpa

For the age group from 12 years there has been a general vaccination recommendation from the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko).

For smaller children, on the other hand, the Stiko has so far only advised corona vaccination if they have certain previous illnesses or people with a high corona risk in their environment.

However, if desired and after medical advice, every child can still be vaccinated.

From this week on, a lower dose vaccine for five to eleven year olds should be able to be used in Germany.

Corona: Manufacturers are working on adapted Omicron vaccines

Because of the strongly mutated Omicron variant, which is increasingly causing infections in several countries, vaccine manufacturers have announced that they will be working on adapted vaccines.

So far, however, it is not yet certain whether these will actually be necessary.

Biontech had also announced that a new vaccine would not be immediately available in large quantities if production were to start up in March.