Country wants to adjust corona tier system because of omicron
Created: 01/18/2022, 06:14
An intensive care bed with a ventilation unit is on a corona ward.
© Robert Michael/dpa-Zentralbild/Symbolbild
The load on the intensive care units in the southwest is decreasing noticeably, even if the incidences are increasing.
The omicron variant, which soon dominates, is milder.
Like Bavaria, the government in Stuttgart also wants to readjust its corona rules.
Stuttgart - The state of Baden-Württemberg wants to revise its tiered system of anti-corona measures because of the omicron variant. As the German Press Agency learned from government circles in Stuttgart, the Ministry of Social Affairs wants to adjust the rules in the new Corona Ordinance at the end of January. Then, according to reports, there could probably be slight loosening in some areas. Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) wants to make initial proposals in the cabinet this Tuesday, it said.
Alarm level II is currently still in force in the southwest with numerous restrictions, especially for those who have not been vaccinated, although there are no longer as many Covid 19 patients in the intensive care units of the hospitals as there were before Christmas.
Experts assume that the extremely contagious omicron variant has a much milder course than delta and therefore fewer people become seriously ill.
However, the seven-day incidences have recently risen sharply again.
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Last summer, the green-black state government introduced a system with basic, warning and alarm levels I and II.
In order to prevent the clinics from being overloaded, the occupancy of the intensive care beds and the so-called hospitalization rate were introduced as decisive criteria.
The latter indicates how many corona infected people are brought to a clinic within a week and per 100,000 inhabitants.
Actually, the government should have relaxed the corona rules according to its tier system long ago, since the limit values were undercut, especially for the occupied intensive care beds.
But because of the rising incidences, the country decided last week to remain in alert level II with numerous restrictions until the end of January.
Government and coalition circles said that this could not be maintained in the long term.
According to the original regulation, the country would probably even have to go back to the so-called warning level in the middle of the week, since the limit of 390 occupied intensive care beds should then be fallen below for five days in a row.
In the warning level, 3G would then largely apply again and, for example, football stadiums could open completely again, while there are currently only ghost games.
Clubs and discotheques could also reopen, and unvaccinated people would have access with a current PCR test.
In view of the increasing incidences caused by Omicron, such extensive openings went too far, which is why the rules that apply in the individual stages would have to be adjusted again, according to coalition and government circles.
Most recently, the virologist and advisor to the federal government, Christian Drosten, said he saw a “chance” in the milder omicron variant.
Sooner or later everyone would have to get infected with Sars-Cov-2.
"In the long term, we cannot receive the immune protection of the entire population every few months with a booster vaccination." That's what the virus has to do, explained Drosten.
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder wants to take a "broader approach" to corona policy in the future because of Omikron.
“It will no longer be sufficient to only look at the situation from a medical and virological point of view.
We also have to pay more attention to the societal and social component," said the CSU leader.
At the beginning of next week, the Prime Ministers will again discuss the further strategy in the fight against Corona with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
dpa
