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According to expert opinion on pandemic rules: Karl Lauterbach warns of "heavy" corona autumn

2022-07-01T20:39:29.025Z


"We have to be prepared," says the Federal Health Minister, who expects the corona situation to worsen in autumn. The critical infrastructure is also threatened – but Lauterbach rules out a lockdown.


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Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach presenting the report on the pandemic measures

Photo: Lisi Niesner / REUTERS

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach fears that the corona situation will worsen significantly in autumn.

"It will be a difficult autumn, we have to be prepared," said the SPD politician in the ARD daily topics.

He believes that “we will have great difficulties with the BA.5 variant that is now spreading here”.

He expects a very high number of cases, which could also lead to an overload of the critical infrastructure.

"That is my fear," said the minister.

On Friday, a committee of experts presented a long-awaited report on the effectiveness of previous corona protection measures.

Accordingly, measures such as wearing a mask can continue to be helpful against the corona virus.

However, behind many other well-known conditions, the expert committee puts big question marks: due to a lack of sufficient data, reliable assessments are not possible.

Lauterbach admitted that "the data was not perfect" so far.

With a pandemic radar in hospitals and wastewater monitoring, he expects better data in September.

The report is "not a Bible to quote from" and "not the last word," said the health minister.

Lauterbach rules out another lockdown

In the reports, many measures were evaluated according to the motto "They help, but we don't know how much they help," said the minister in the ZDF "heute-journal".

International literature and other expert assessments would therefore now also be included in consultations on a new infection protection law.

Lauterbach ruled out a lockdown like at the beginning of the pandemic: "We wouldn't repeat that."

With Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP), Lauterbach now wants “to come to regulations very quickly that will better protect citizens in autumn and winter,” said Lauterbach on ARD.

"All in all, you should of course do what you can achieve the most with the smallest restriction."

According to Lauterbach, the Minister of Health and Buschmann already started talks on Friday.

He did not talk about details, the ministers wanted to negotiate confidentially.

What the federal states want has already leaked out.

ani/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-07-01

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