Corona General Breuer continues to urge caution - but he has hope

Created: 2022-02-28Updated: 2022-02-28 05:16

By: Richard Strobl

Major General Carsten Breuer, Head of the Corona Crisis Management Team.

© Christian Charisius/dpa

The corona numbers in Germany continue to fall.

But experts warn.

The government is updating the list of high-risk areas.

All news about the pandemic in the ticker.

• The Corona* numbers in Germany continue to fall.

  (see first report)

• The federal government removed a number of countries from the list of high-risk areas on Sunday, including Italy (see update from February 27, 1:52 p.m.).

• The head of the Corona crisis team names a worst-case scenario

  (see update from February 27, 5:30 p.m.)

  .

• This news ticker is updated regularly.

Update from February 27, 10:05 p.m .:

At the beginning of the new week, people in other federal states can be vaccinated with Novavax’s new corona vaccine.

This is possible on Monday in Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia, Berlin and a district in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, according to a survey by the German Press Agency among the responsible authorities in all federal states.

Vaccination options with the new vaccine were already available at the weekend in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Saarland and some parts of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The other federal states want to offer Novavax vaccinations in the course of the week.

The first deliveries of the preparation arrived on Thursday at the Bundeswehr in Quakenbrück, Lower Saxony, and delivery to the federal states began on Friday.

The state health ministers had spoken out in favor of initially offering the vaccine primarily to unvaccinated health care workers.

Because in the industry, from March 15th, a facility-related vaccination obligation will take effect.

The vaccine was injected at the weekend, but also to people who were not prioritized.

Corona General Breuer continues to urge caution - but he has hope

Update from February 27, 5.30 p.m .:

The head of the Corona crisis team in the Chancellery, General Carsten Breuer, has urged further caution in the corona pandemic.

"We are far from talking about the end of the pandemic," he told

.

Although the omicron wave is "apparently defeated" and the first easing is possible, "but we have to remain cautious - and also expect that tightened measures can come again towards autumn," he added.

Various scenarios are currently being prepared.

"A possible worst-case scenario would be a combination of the delta and omicron variants, which triggers a new, violent wave that pushes the healthcare system to its limits," said Breuer.

"It's not the most likely scenario, but it's the worst scenario, but we have to prepare for it.

For example, by preparing the vaccination logistics and vaccine production accordingly and by further increasing the vaccination rate.”

Breuer also has hope in the new Novavax vaccine: "With the Novavax vaccine, we now have another new opportunity to convince those who have previously decided against mRNA vaccines to be vaccinated."

Corona in Germany: Several countries removed from the high-risk list

Update from February 27, 1:52 p.m .:

Almost 40 countries were removed from the list of corona high-risk areas by the federal government on Sunday, including EU countries such as Italy, Poland and Belgium.

It is easier for travelers coming from countries that are no longer classified as high-risk areas to return to Germany.

No country was reclassified as a high-risk area.

The EU countries removed from the list are:

Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg, Poland, Sweden, Hungary.

Also the following overseas territories of France: Guadeloupe, St. Barthélemy, St. Martin - as well as the following overseas territories of the Netherlands: Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, St. Eustatius, Saba, St. Martin.

Also removed from the risk list:

Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, Grenada, Guyana, Iraq, Colombia, Kosovo, Madagascar, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Panama, Peru, Philippines , Moldova, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Suriname and Ukraine.

Anyone entering the country from a high-risk area and not fully vaccinated - i.e. usually twice - or recovered, must be in quarantine for ten days and can free themselves from it at the earliest five days after entry with a negative test.

For children who have not yet reached the age of six, the isolation ends automatically five days after entry.

Corona news: RKI incidence in Germany continues to fall - but experts see a big problem

First report:

Berlin – The nationwide seven-day incidence in Germany* has fallen again.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week on Sunday morning as 1240.3.

For comparison: the day before the value was 1253.3.

A week ago, the nationwide incidence was 1346.3 (previous month: 1017.4).

The health authorities in Germany reported 107,913 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.

This is evident from numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 5 a.m.

A week ago there were 118,032 infections.

Corona in Germany: Experts suspect a high number of unreported cases

Experts assume a high number of cases that are not recorded in the RKI data.

One reason is the limited capacity of health authorities, for example, and contacts are often only tracked to a limited extent.

In addition, according to the ALM laboratory association, there is now a larger number of people whose infection is no longer confirmed by a PCR test - these infections are therefore not included in the official statistics.

According to the new information, 57 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.

A week ago there were 73 deaths.

The RKI has counted 14,682,758 infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections go undetected.

A student swabs her nose during a test run with rapid corona tests at a primary school in Neukölln.

© Christoph Soeder/dpa

Corona news for Germany: More than ten million people have recovered

The number of corona-infected patients who came to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was 6.28 according to the RKI on Friday (Thursday: 6.27).

Among them are many people with a positive corona test who have another main illness.

The value is not reported on weekends.

The RKI gave the number of recovered people on Sunday as 10,842,300.

The number of people who died from or involved a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 122,678.