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Corona news on Thursday: The most important developments on Sars-CoV

2021-01-28T07:31:31.887Z


A 21-year-old coronavirus patient drove from Wiesbaden to Mainz to go shopping. And: The Robert Koch Institute has not yet presented any current figures on the infection rate in Germany. The overview.


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Main station in Mainz (symbol picture)

Photo: RALPH ORLOWSKI / REUTERS

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No current figures from the Robert Koch Institute yet

Unusual delay at the RKI: The institute, which usually reports current figures on the infection rate in the Corona crisis early in the morning, has not yet published any new data this Thursday.

The SPIEGEL editorial team asks - here in the update you will find out more shortly.

Vietnam fears a major corona outbreak for the first time in months

8:08 a.m

.: Vietnam fears rising Covid-19 numbers.

The Ministry of Health announced that 82 new infections were confirmed on Thursday.

These are the first local transmissions of the virus after 55 days.

70 infections are reportedly linked to a large factory in Hai Duong City near Hanoi.

One of the people who tested positive had previously traveled around the region and met with around 200 people, according to the authorities.

All of them should now be contacted and tested.

Many worry about one of the most important holidays in the Southeast Asian country: In two weeks, Vietnam will celebrate the New Year celebrations according to the lunar calendar, when citizens traditionally travel across the country and hold family celebrations.

So far, Vietnam has gotten through the pandemic lightly thanks to strict measures.

Only around 1,600 cases have been reported, 35 people have died in connection with Covid-19.

SPD demands plan for faster vaccinations

6.47 a.m

.: The Social Democrats are

urging

an acceleration of the corona vaccinations in Germany.

"We need a clear plan as to how we can get vaccinations faster in Germany," said SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil of the German Press Agency.

For this, all levels would have to come together.

The background is, among other things, the dispute between the European Union and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

The manufacturer's vaccine is expected to initially be delivered to Germany and other countries in far smaller quantities than expected.

In the EU, the vaccine is expected to be approved on Friday.

At a crisis meeting on Wednesday evening, the company had not promised any additional deliveries.

The manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer, whose preparation is already in use, also had production problems in the meantime.

"There is one setback after the other," said Klingbeil.

He said there is now a need to be transparent about contracts and re-orders of vaccines.

Thefts of oxygen bottles that have become scarce are increasing in Mexico

5.15 a.m.:

In Mexico, thefts of oxygen bottles, which are becoming increasingly scarce in the coronavirus pandemic, are increasing.

The Ministry of Public Security announced that 14 such cases of theft or fraud have already been recorded since January 3.

Investigations have so far led to the seizure of 36 stolen oxygen bottles and eight arrests.

The purpose of the theft of the containers for medical oxygen was therefore to sell them on the black market.

Due to the "exponential" increase in demand in the face of persistently high corona numbers, Mexico's government last week called for oxygen bottles to be handed over.

Many hospitals in the North American country are currently full.

Also because of the widespread distrust of the chronically underfunded health system, many Covid-19 sufferers stay at home.

There they are supplied with oxygen by relatives.

In many places long lines form in front of places where the bottles are filled.

Mexico - with almost 130 million inhabitants in tenth place of the most populous countries - has so far recorded the fourth most deaths worldwide as a result of Covid 19 disease.

With 153,639 deaths, it is only just behind India in third place.

Because there is very little testing in Mexico and the so-called excess mortality is particularly high, experts assume that the true number is much higher there.

In the past few weeks, a particularly high number of fatalities have been reported - the previous high is 1803 within 24 hours, the last was added on Wednesday 1623.

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has also been treated for mild Covid 19 symptoms since Sunday.

Australia continues to suspend quarantine-free entry from New Zealand

4.30 a.m.:

Australia is suspending the quarantine-free entry from New Zealand for another 72 hours.

The authorities justify the step as a measure to protect the Australian population.

In New Zealand, two people recently tested positive for the South American variant of the coronavirus.

Hairdressing salons and fitness studios demand a clear perspective for reopening

3:05 a.m.:

In view of the number of coronavirus infections in Germany, which has fallen in recent weeks, the hairdressing trade and the fitness industry are calling for clear prospects for reopening their businesses.

“In a first stage, daycare centers and schools should reopen.

In the next stage, the hairdressers should be able to open again, «said the President of the Central Association of the German Hairdressing Trade, Harald Esser, the newspapers of the Funke media group.

As a prerequisite, Esser stated that the so-called seven-day incidence was below 50 and the number of reproductions was also stable below the critical level of 1.0.

To protect against infection in hairdressing salons, Esser advocated that employees and customers should be obliged to wear medical masks.

The President of the Employers' Association of German Fitness and Health Systems, Birgit Schwarze, called for a step-by-step plan in the Funke newspapers for the reopening of the companies in their sector.

As soon as the situation eases, politicians must "come up with a strategy for gradual easing".

Last year, the fitness studios developed comprehensive hygiene concepts that "worked well," said Schwarze.

Many companies are now threatened with ruin after they first invested in hygiene measures, then had to close "and now not receive the promised aid payments," she criticized.

However, the association of cities and municipalities warned against drawing the wrong conclusions from the falling corona infection numbers.

Relaxation should only be provided if "the number of health authorities with low incidences continues to increase significantly and leads to a nationwide development," said chief executive Gerd Landsberg the Funke newspapers.

So far, fewer than 30 of 412 health department districts have achieved a seven-day incidence of less than 50.

First of all, day-care centers and elementary schools would have to "carefully get opening perspectives again, taking into account the hygiene regulations," said Landsberg.

Even the retail sector, which has led to empty inner cities for months and which has not been able to take advantage of the Christmas business that is so important to it, can then slowly start up again in a next step.

The same could apply to the hairdressers.

Why children make herd immunity difficult

02.15 a.m.:

Corona vaccines are not approved for under 16s.

What does this mean for the further course of the pandemic?

Read more here.

Again violent riots in Lebanon during protests against corona requirements

1.30 a.m.:

Serious riots broke out in Lebanon on the third evening in a row during protests against the corona restrictions.

In the port city of Tripoli in the north of the country, protesters fought street battles with the police on Wednesday.

According to the Lebanese news agency NNA, 226 people were injured.

Protesters threw Molotov cocktails and stones at the security forces, a correspondent for the AFP news agency observed.

Some of the protesters tried to break into the seat of the regional government.

The security forces used tear gas.

At least 66 of the injured were admitted to hospitals, according to the NNA.

The security forces announced via the online service Twitter that there were nine injured in their ranks.

Dozens of people had been injured in the confrontations on the previous evenings.

Tripoli was one of the poorest areas in the country even before the corona pandemic and its economic impact.

Since the government imposed a nationwide lockdown earlier this month, many of the city's residents have lost their income.

“We're here to ask for food.

People are hungry, ”said 20-year-old protester Mohamad Essedin.

A lockdown in Lebanon, originally scheduled for January 25, was last extended to February 8.

The coronavirus is currently spreading rapidly in the Mediterranean country with six million inhabitants.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 285,000 infections have been detected and more than 2,400 people have died in connection with the virus.

Lebanon is in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades.

The Lebanese pound has been in free fall since the summer.

According to the UN, almost half of the population lives below the poverty line.

Lower Saxony apparently has an easing plan

1:20 a.m.:

According to a media report, the state government of Lower Saxony has developed a plan to loosen the corona restrictions - but only as a rough guideline and in the event that the number of infections continues to fall.

The plan ranges from level 1 (low infection rate), where almost everything is possible again, to level 6 (escalating infection rate), in which almost nothing works, as the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" reported.

Public and private get-togethers without personal restrictions, distance and masks would therefore only be possible again if the number of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week - i.e. the so-called 7-day incidence - is below ten.

According to the report, the country does not want to make a final decision on how to proceed until after the next round of prime ministers with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) in early February.

Dreyer calls for uniform rules for easing the lockdown

0.40 a.m.:

The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) has called for uniform rules for easing the corona lockdown: “I believe that it is important that we in Germany agree on the same 'if-then rules' «, She told the editorial network Germany (RND).

"We need an agreement on the incidence corridors in which certain areas can be relaxed or must be tightened again." A future plan that gives families, the economy and culture perspectives is "absolutely necessary".

Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) was more reserved.

He demanded that the scenarios for relaxation should not be based solely on the number of new infections.

“The incidence value is an important measure - but not the only one.

We also have to keep an eye on other aspects, such as the spread of the mutations and the workload in the intensive care units, ”said the SPD politician.

School and daycare centers should be at the forefront when it comes to easing.

The incidence quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days.

Almost three million people in Slovak mass tests

0.30 a.m.:

Slovakia has again subjected a large part of the population over ten years old to a corona mass test.

As the populist-conservative Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Wednesday, 2.95 million of the 5.5 million inhabitants took part in the rapid antigen tests.

1.24 percent of the test results were positive.

The tests carried out across the country within nine days from January 18 to 26 were formally voluntary.

However, if you cannot show a negative test result, you are not even allowed to go to work until February 7th.

A negative test can even be proven for walks in nature.

The police had announced strict controls from Wednesday in advance.

Matovic justified the mass tests in front of journalists as the only objective way to determine the real spread of the pandemic.

The Association of Towns and Municipalities, on the other hand, criticized that the main burden of the organization had been placed on the municipalities without adequate compensation.

Before further mass tests, experts should first be asked whether the enormous expenditure of human and material resources is not too great compared to the actual benefit.

Before that, the medical association and other health organizations had already criticized the fact that nationwide tests on mostly healthy people would inefficiently use the capacities of the health system, which is on the verge of collapse.

It would be better to only test risk groups and hotspots, but to concentrate more on the preparation of corona vaccinations.

Slovakia had already caused an international sensation with mass tests in October / November 2020.

While Austria and other countries emulated this experiment, it was always controversial in Slovakia itself.

Portugal calls the Bundeswehr for help

0.15 a.m.:

The infection rates in Portugal are dramatic, the health system collapsed in the first place.

Germany sent a team of experts.

Read more here.

Icon: The mirror

cop / jpz / dpa / AFP / Reuters / AP

Source: spiegel

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