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Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier at the CDU's autumn retreat in September 2020
Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa
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Altmaier believes that an extension of the lockdown is conceivable even if the incidence value is below 50
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) does not rule out that the current corona lockdown has to be extended again.
"The current development feeds the hope that we can approach an incidence of 50 relatively quickly," Altmaier told the "Welt am Sonntag".
"The length of the lockdown also depends on the extent to which new mutations of the coronavirus are spreading in Germany."
The current restrictions are initially limited to February 14th.
The declared goal of the federal and state governments has so far been to keep the so-called seven-day incidence, i.e. the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within one week, below 50.
From this value, the health authorities should be able to fully trace infection chains again and thus bring the infection process under control.
However, it remains to be seen whether this assessment from last year also applies in view of the new, more contagious virus variants.
In the past few days the incidence value has slowly decreased.
Experts believe it is possible that the value could theoretically be 50 in mid-February.
Altmaier warned, however, that it was seen in Great Britain that the new virus variant was able to spread quickly because the lockdown there was less strict than the one currently in force in Germany.
At the same time, Altmaier made it clear that the European Union would not accept discrimination from vaccine manufacturers.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made it very clear that all companies had to fulfill their commitments, he said.
"If it turns out that individual companies are not meeting their obligations, a decision must be made about legal consequences."
RKI reports 11,192 new infections and 399 further deaths
According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the health authorities in Germany reported 11,192 new corona infections within one day on Sunday morning.
Last Sunday, the value was 12,257 reported new infections.
However, the number of cases reported by the RKI is usually lower on Sundays, partly because fewer tests are carried out on the weekend.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the RKI has counted 2,216 363 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 in Germany.
The seven-day incidence fell slightly to a value of 90.2; on Saturday it was just under 91.
The value indicates how many people per 100,000 inhabitants have been infected with the corona virus in the past seven days.
The goal of the federal government is a value of 50.
The number of reported deaths related to the coronavirus rose by 399 to a total of 56,945. As of Sunday a week ago, 349 cases were reported in which patients had died related to the virus.
The total number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 56,945.
The nationwide seven-day R-value was 0.92 according to the RKI situation report on Saturday (previous day 0.92).
This means that 100 infected people theoretically infect 92 more people.
The value represents the occurrence of the infection 8 to 16 days ago.
If it is below 1 for a long time, the infection process subsides.
Cuba's authorities want to tighten corona measures
9:55 p.m.:
Cuba wants to take further measures to contain the corona virus.
As the AP news agency reports, tourists and other visitors to the country should go into isolation for several days at their own expense until they receive a negative corona test.
According to Cuba's chief epidemiologist Francisco Duran, the quarantine should last at least five days.
Isolation at home should also be possible for diplomats and business people.
Cuba had recently registered rising numbers of corona cases, and 910 new infections were reported on Friday.
At the beginning of the month, the country had already launched an elaborate test strategy for tourists.
Italy only recommends AstraZeneca vaccine up to 55 years of age
9:06 p.m.:
The Italian Medicines Agency recommends the corona vaccine from the manufacturer AstraZeneca, which has been approved in the EU since Friday, only for adults up to the age of 55 years.
In accordance with the recommendations of the EU Medicines Agency EMA, the vaccine is approved in Italy, the agency said on Saturday.
However, people over 55 years of age and particularly susceptible people should preferably be vaccinated with the vaccines based on mRNA technology from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna.
According to the AFP news agency, the agency explained that there were "certain uncertainties" about the effectiveness of the agent in older people, as this age group was only "poorly represented" in the clinical tests.
The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) in Germany recommends the AstraZeneca vaccine for people between the ages of 18 and 64 years.
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