Incidence of over 1000: Southwest loosens slightly anyway

Created: 2022-01-27Updated: 2022-01-27 8:14 p.m

A medical worker carries out a rapid corona test.

© Martin Schutt/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Symbolbild

Now Baden-Württemberg is also breaking the 1000 mark in terms of incidence.

However, this is not yet reflected in the clinics.

That's why the Corona rules will be relaxed from this Friday - for the time being.

Stuttgart – Although the number of infections is increasing sharply, Baden-Württemberg is relaxing its corona rules from this Friday.

The seven-day incidence was above 1000 for the first time on Thursday. But the steep increase in infections to 100,000 inhabitants within a week has not yet had an impact on the hospitals and intensive care units in the southwest.

Experts assume that the new omicron virus variant leads to the many new infections.

However, Omikron is said to be much milder, which could explain the currently stagnating numbers in the infirmaries.

Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) has repeatedly warned against taking Omikron lightly. When the new Corona Ordinance was announced on Thursday, the State Ministry reminded: "Due to the very high number of infections, another heavy burden on the health system cannot be ruled out."

Green-Black is thus putting the regular level system back into effect and thus slightly relaxing the measures in many areas of life.

Only the alert level applies, the second highest level.

This means that in restaurants, museums and when doing sports in halls, for example, only the 2G rule has to be observed.

Previously, those who had been vaccinated and those who had recovered were also required to show a test.

More visitors are allowed again at major sporting and cultural events - the upper limit is 6,000 if the 2G-plus rule applies at the entrance.

There are also reliefs for the unvaccinated. The nightly curfews will cease to apply when the normal alarm level returns. Since the middle of the week, unvaccinated people have been allowed to go shopping again because of a court decision if they have a current test with them. In the future, hairdressers and barbershops will no longer have to show a PCR test - a rapid antigen test is sufficient, as the State Ministry announced on Thursday in Stuttgart.

The background to the easing is that the government made up of Greens and CDU must put the regular tier system back into force.

Most recently, she had frozen alert level II with severe restrictions because of Omicron.

However, the Administrative Court (VGH) considers this procedure to be unlawful.

Experts say that although Omikron has less severe disease progression, it is significantly more contagious.

Because the burden on hospitals has decreased - relatively speaking - in the past few weeks, the government has to relax the measures somewhat.

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But because of Omikron, there are also tightenings within the alarm level that is now in force again.

An FFP2 mask is mandatory on buses and trains from the age of 18.

Clubs, discos and club-like places must remain closed due to the increased risk of infection.

The same applies to trade fairs and exhibitions.

Carnival parades are also prohibited, which caused great displeasure among the clubs.

The seven-day incidence increased by 54.8 to 1024.1.

For comparison: a week ago the incidence was 667.2.

However, this is not yet having an effect on the intensive care units in the country.

276 Covid patients were treated there, two fewer than the day before.

That's another minus of 21 compared to last Thursday.

The hospitalization incidence, i.e. the number of people infected with corona per 100,000 inhabitants who came to a clinic within a week, remained at 4.9.

The omicron variant of the coronavirus has now become almost fully established in the southwest.

In the third week of January, 93.4 percent of all samples tested using the variant-specific PCR test traced back to this variant.

As a result, Omikron has also become dominant in the southwest within a few weeks.

dpa