Karl Lauterbach and RKI boss Lothar Wieler on the current corona situation

Created: 2/8/2022Updated: 2/8/2022 5:06 AM

By: Bettina Menzel

Prof. Dr.

Lothar H. Wieler, the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) together with Federal Minister of Health Prof. Dr.

Karl Lauterbach at the last federal press conference on January 28 (archive image) © Metodi Popow / Imago

On Tuesday, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach and RKI boss Lothar Wieler commented on the current corona situation - it is also about vaccination.

• On Tuesday (December 8), Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and RKI President Lothar Wieler will comment on the current corona situation from 10 a.m.

  (see first report).

• Also taking part will be expert Rolf Apweiler, director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Cambridge.

• This ticker is continuously updated.

Berlin – The omicron variant of the corona virus is milder than Delta, but the risk of a pandemic has not yet been banned.

At the federal press conference on Tuesday, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and the head of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, want to comment on the current corona situation in Germany.

Germany has the second oldest population in Europe - and a high number of unvaccinated people

After Italy, Germany has the second-oldest population in Europe and a very high number of unvaccinated people.

With this situation, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach opened the last federal press conference on January 28th.

In the particularly vulnerable age group, three times as many people in Germany are unvaccinated as, for example, in Italy.

Not much has changed in these difficult conditions since last week.

Lauterbach also refers to this challenge in Germany in a recent tweet.

"The new data from Israel show a high OmiKron mortality rate, which is due to the fact that too many older people are unvaccinated," said the minister.

So far, such death rates have been prevented in Germany because older unvaccinated people have been protected by our measures, Lauterbach continues.

Topics of the federal press conference: infections, vaccinations, post-Covid syndrome and relaxation?

For the federal press conference on Tuesday (February 8), it is expected that the three experts Karl Lauterbach, Lothar Wieler and Rolf Apweiler will comment on the infection process, the progress of vaccination and other developments in the corona pandemic.

The start of the corona vaccinations in pharmacies and the latest findings regarding the post-Covid syndrome should also be discussed.

However, it is not yet clear whether there will be any changes to the corona measures.

However, Karl Lauterbach had promised that relaxation could come after the peak of the omicron wave.

"We want to get over the wave," said the health minister at the last federal press conference in January.

“Then we can relax.” The expert expects the highest numbers in mid-February – at the latest in early March.

It is therefore quite possible that the press conference on Tuesday will also be about easing.