Corona numbers in Bavaria continue to rise rapidly: infectiologist warns, but Söder's promise causes astonishment

Created: 2022-01-24 05:19

By: Katharina Haase, Thomas Eldersch

The corona numbers in Bavaria continue to rise sharply.

No need to worry for Prime Minister Söder.

The news ticker.

• A Munich virologist warns against dismissing Omikron as "mild".

  (

  First report from January 22nd)

• Markus Söder nevertheless announces easing for the Free State.

  (see update from January 23, 8:39 a.m.)

• This news ticker is updated regularly.

• By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you about all the important stories from Bavaria.

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Update from January 23, 3:49 p.m .:

The institution-related vaccination obligation should apply from mid-March. By March 15, staff in facilities with particularly vulnerable people such as clinics, medical practices and nursing homes must be vaccinated against the corona virus. The unvaccinated employees are then at risk of losing their jobs. Job advertisements from unvaccinated nurses looking for new work are currently piling up in several newspapers. Bavarian daily newspapers are also affected.

Several media outlets and journalists reported a remarkable accumulation of these very similar ads. The suspicion is therefore that there could be at least some false reports or coordinated actions by opponents of the corona vaccination. A journalist from RBB tried to reach some of the advertisers and thus check the authenticity of the advertisements. His result was sobering.

Update from January 23, 8:39 a.m .:

The seven-day incidence in Bavaria is 836.9 on Sunday.

This emerges from the figures from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) from 3:26 a.m.

The day before it was 822.

The Free State thus clearly exceeds the national average of 806.8.

15,925 new infections with the corona virus were registered in Bavaria within 24 hours.

Ten people died from or with the virus.

Corona in Bavaria: Incidence continues to rise sharply - Söder still promises easing

The list of the highest incidences is headed by the district of Erding (1473.1), followed by the district of Ebersberg (1339.4) and the urban area of ​​the state capital Munich (1336). But the districts of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Dachau and Freising are also well over the 1000 mark. A total of 20 cities and districts across Bavaria exceed the incidence for which a lockdown obligation was set just a few months ago. The chief physician Clemens Wendtner of the infectiology at the Schwabing Clinic believes that restrictions are still necessary when the number of infections is high and advocates maintaining the regulation on regional lockdowns from a seven-day incidence of 1000.

However, Prime Minister Markus Söder already emphasized in the run-up to the Prime Ministers' Conference on Monday (January 24) that the Omicron variant could not be combated with the measures that had been developed for the Delta variant.

According to Söder, Bavaria will not support any tightening of measures on Monday and will even relax some areas soon.

The sudden departure from the hard line of the "Team Caution", to which Söder had belonged since the beginning of the pandemic, had already caused a stir in the past few days.

First report from January 22nd

Munich - Experts and politicians have been arguing for weeks about how to deal with the omicron wave.

In England, they have now opted for the "open all" option.

In Germany people are still hesitating.

Although Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) spoke of small loosening at a press conference after a CSU board meeting on Friday.

More people will soon be able to attend cultural events again.

Fans should also be allowed back into the stadiums.

You have to react to the Corona variant with “a sense of proportion”, according to the head of state.

A dangerous way, finds the Munich virologist Oliver Keppler.

Corona in Bavaria: Omicron rarely leads to severe courses, but is much more contagious

Since the incidence has become obsolete for many decision-makers and scientists, the focus is now on not overloading the healthcare system.

It's a good thing that the omicron variant, which is becoming more and more popular, rarely leads to severe courses.

The hospitals can relax a little after Delta.

The virologist Keppler, from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich*, sees a new wave rolling in.

"A trivialization of omicron would therefore be fatal, I consider the classification as 'mild', which is often read, to be extremely dangerous," he told the dpa.

Due to the high average age and the many unvaccinated people, Germany would be in a worse position than other countries.

The Munich virologist Oliver Keppler warns against labeling Omikron as "mild".

© MvP Institute/dpa

In America, one would see what Omikron would do, according to Keppler, who is also the head of the Max von Pettenkofer Institute. “In the USA we are seeing a monstrous incidence of infection with up to a million new cases of infection every day. There are more Covid 19 patients in the hospitals there than ever before during the pandemic, and the number of deaths has also increased significantly in recent weeks. Now that's anything but 'mild'.” Preliminary research from the UK and US indicated that widespread omicron infections were about two to three times less likely to result in hospital admissions than delta infections. "But this new variant creates a much higher infection dynamic with new infection numbers that are ten to twenty times higher than in the delta wave at a comparable time.Keppler also points out that the long-term effects of omicron have not yet been sufficiently investigated. For example, there could be more cases of Long-Covid.

Corona in Bavaria: will Germany soon have 400,000 new infections a day?

Germany still has time to react to the situation, according to the virologist.

In the US* and UK, the omicron wave is four to five weeks ahead.

“In Germany, too, we will soon see 200,000 to 400,000 new infections a day.

Without a doubt, this will place a heavy burden on our normal wards in the clinics and limit regular operations.” Keppler continues: “We have around 17 million unvaccinated people, most of whom are probably also not recovered.

Of these, around 2.5 million are over 60, so they have an increased risk of severe Covid 19 courses, which can result in treatment in the intensive care unit.

That distinguishes us from other countries.” 

The Munich virologist also warns of people who declare the pandemic * over.

"Based on the findings of the last two years, however, we have to assume that people who are now infected with omicron and refuse vaccination will already have almost no immune protection against a new SARS-CoV-2 variant by autumn."

However, the expert is happy about the willingness of the citizens to cooperate.

“Fortunately, Germany is more on the cautious side, with rules that are constantly being adapted to the infection dynamics and the burden on the health system.

The discipline among the population with regard to wearing masks is also very good here in comparison to other countries.”

Corona in Bavaria: Incidence rises above 800

The current infection numbers prove the virologist right.

Bavaria's incidence slipped above the 800 mark on Saturday and is now at 822 (data from January 22, RKI).

According to this, there have been 20,500 new infections and 32 deaths in the Free State in the past 24 hours.

The districts with the highest incidences are all in Upper Bavaria.

Dachau is in first place (1393), followed by Erding (1341) and Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen (1290).

Munich is not far behind with 1237.7.