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Medical staff in Schwetzingen take a smear from a driver
Photo: Uwe Anspach / dpa
The article is continuously updated.
Never miss a thing: now for all the latest developments and important backgrounds to our
coronavirus newsletter
.
More than 2500 corona deaths in the USA within 24 hours
4.30 a.m.:
In the USA, more than 2500 people died within one day as a result of a coronavirus infection.
Johns Hopkins University announced on Tuesday evening that 2562 corona deaths had been registered nationwide.
The last time there were so many deaths in the United States was the end of April at the height of the first wave of infections.
The Johns Hopkins University also recorded more than 180,000 new infections by Tuesday evening.
Around 99,000 infected people were treated in hospitals.
The situation is particularly dire in several states in the American Midwest, including Indiana and South Dakota.
The US is the hardest hit country in the world by the pandemic.
In total, the United States has already recorded more than 13.7 million corona cases.
More than 270,000 infected people died.
Due to the wave of travel around the most important US holiday, Thanksgiving, experts fear another sharp increase in the number of infections in the coming days.
City and municipality federation for the reopening of the restaurants in January
4.30 a.m.:
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities has proposed a reopening of the restaurants in January with an evening curfew.
»We will find it difficult to keep up the closure of restaurants and hotels beyond the end of the year for economic reasons alone.
That will simply be too expensive for the state, ”said managing director Gerd Landsberg of the“ Rheinische Post ”.
He therefore expects a "careful reopening of parts of the catering trade" from January.
According to Landsberg, the model could be Switzerland: "The restaurants there didn't have to close, but they close at 9 p.m.," said the managing director.
In the dispute between the federal government and the states about the financing of the Corona aid, Landsberg sided with the states.
"Without further massive help from the federal government, the states and municipalities will not be able to cope with the corona crisis in the new year," said Landsberg.
"And according to the Basic Law, the federal government is responsible for supporting the economy, not the states." In this respect, he can "only understand the demands of the Union for an additional burden on the states" to a limited extent.
UN wants to help hundreds of thousands of stranded seafarers
4:05 a.m.:
The United Nations want to help hundreds of thousands of seafarers who are stuck on their ships because of the corona pandemic.
In a resolution passed by 193 countries on Tuesday, UN member states will call for seafarers to be classified as systemically important.
The aim is to ensure that the around 400,000 stranded seafarers return to their home countries despite the global travel restrictions and that the crews of the ships can be changed.
UN General Secretary António Guterres had already drawn attention to the desperate situation of the stranded seafarers in June.
According to him, 80 percent of global trade is carried out by ship, including medicines, food and other essential supplies that are urgently needed in the fight against the corona pandemic.
Johnson & Johnson: First step in the approval process for vaccine in Europe
3:50 a.m.:
The vaccine candidate from the US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson is one step further in the approval process in Europe and Canada.
The national health authorities have started to review the Covid-19 vaccine candidate as part of a "rolling review," said Johnson & Johnson.
Preliminary results have shown that the vaccine triggers the production of antibodies and immune cells against the virus.
The European Medicines Agency, EMA, said the review would continue until there was enough evidence to support a formal application for approval of the vaccine candidate.
The rolling approval process enables approval to be accelerated by continuously submitting and evaluating data from clinical studies before the application is submitted, so that the available data are already evaluated when the approval decision is made.
For the vaccine candidates from Moderna and its partners Biontech and Pfizer, the emergency approval for Europe and the USA was applied for this week.
USA wants to vaccinate health workers and nursing home residents against corona first
3.20 a.m.:
In the USA, health workers and residents of nursing homes are to be vaccinated against the
corona virus
first.
This emerges from an official recommendation for the first phase of vaccinations, which a panel of experts from the CDC health authority approved on Tuesday.
The so-called phase 1a of the vaccinations is expected to start in December.
In the USA, the US pharmaceutical company Moderna and the Mainz vaccine developer Biontech and its US partner Pfizer have applied for approval of a corona vaccine.
Should the US Food and Drug Administration give the FDA the green light, both vaccines could be used later this year.
The CDC now recommends vaccinating health workers and nursing home residents first in December - around 24 million people in total.
If Pfizer and Moderna deliver 40 million doses of vaccine as promised after approval, 20 million people, almost all members of both groups, could be vaccinated in December.
To protect against corona infection, two vaccinations are required every three or four weeks.
According to the CDC expert Nancy Messonnier, most states expect to be able to vaccinate all of their health workers within three weeks - this includes not only doctors and nurses but also employees from nursing services, pharmacies and emergency services.
According to the CDC representative Sara Oliver, the US authorities expect to have between five and ten million vaccine doses available every week after December.
There is still no official recommendation for the second phase of vaccination.
Experts advise vaccinating systemically important occupational groups next, followed by high-risk patients and people over 65 years of age.
How China downsized the corona outbreak
03.20 a.m.:
In China, there were apparently many more suspected corona cases at the end of 2019 than the WHO authorities reported.
That comes from internal documents reported by CNN.
In the following months, too, the numbers could hardly be relied on.
Read more here.
Saarland's Prime Minister: the federal-state dispute over corona costs is "harmful"
3:05 a.m.:
Before the federal-state consultations on Wednesday, the Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) called for an end to the dispute over the financing of Corona aid.
"Unity has never been as vital as it is now," Hans told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
This is especially true for those politically responsible in the federal and state levels.
“The faster we stop the virus, the less money it costs.
The more we speak with one voice, the better the measures will be accepted and supported by the people «, appealed Hans before the video conference of the state ministers with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).
»Germany must stay together.
The debates between the federal government and the states about funding are damaging. "
Hans told the Düsseldorf »Rheinische Post« that he thought the current discussion was »out of place«.
Instead of mutual accusations, the federal and state governments should jointly and unanimously ensure "that we get through the difficult winter months of the pandemic as well as possible," demanded the CDU politician.
At the same time, he rejected criticism of the states from their own parliamentary group.
“We don't feel left alone by the federal government.
But conversely, we won't leave the federal government out in the rain.
As countries, we are living up to our financial responsibility in the corona crisis, "said Hans.
The Saarland alone has launched a supplementary budget with 2.1 billion euros in corona-related special expenses.
That corresponds to half of a regular state budget.
"We are going to the pain limit of what is possible for a budget crisis country like Saarland," said the CDU politician.
The video conference with Merkel in the afternoon, unlike the many rounds on corona policy in the past few months, is a regular federal-state appointment.
That is why it will be about the pandemic, but also about many other topics.
According to government spokesman Steffen Seibert, no "new resolutions on the matter" are expected on Corona.
The federal states consult with each other beforehand.
They then want to talk to Merkel about the energy transition, digitization, measures to reduce bureaucracy and the planned legal right to all-day care for primary school children.
Intensive care physician: "That's a lot for a single illness"
02.55 a.m.:
The number of new infections is stagnating, and the situation also seems to be
leveling off
in the intensive care units.
However, on a very high level.
Doctors say: we can take it.
Yet.
Read more here.
Latvia extends corona emergency and imposes new restrictions
02.15 a.m.:
In view of the increasing number of infections, Latvia's government has extended the nationwide Corona emergency by almost a month and introduced additional restrictions.
By decision of the Cabinet in Riga, the state of emergency declared until December 6th in the Baltic EU country is now valid until January 11th.
This was announced by Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins on Tuesday evening after a marathon meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Riga.
On December 3, the government also extended the mandatory face mask to all interiors with the exception of your own walls.
The so-called 2 + 2 rule is also being reintroduced in Latvia: According to this, no more than two people are allowed to be together and they must be at least two meters away from other people.
Shopping centers and stores - with the exception of grocery stores and those with goods for daily needs - remain closed on weekends and holidays.
The retail sector is also obliged to regulate the flow of customers: in future, 15 square meters of space must be available for each customer.
Stricter protective measures are also being introduced in education.
Almost all schools will switch to distance learning on December 7th - the only exceptions are grades 1 to 4. From January 4th, all students and teachers must also wear masks in class.
Latvia with its nearly 1.9 million inhabitants recorded a rapid increase in the infection rate in autumn.
According to the EU authority ECDC, the development in the Baltic Sea state is currently worse than in Germany.
In total, almost 18,000 corona infections have been registered since the beginning of the pandemic.
The government in Riga therefore declared a one-month emergency for the second time at the beginning of November.
As in the spring, this restricts public life and economic activities.
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