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Test center in Dresden
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For the first time since the end of November under a thousand corona deaths daily in the USA
5:05 a.m.:
For the first time in almost three and a half months, fewer than a thousand corona deaths were recorded in the USA within one day.
In the past 24 hours, 749 deaths have been registered, said the Johns Hopkins University on Monday (local time).
On January 12, the previous high had been 4,473 deaths.
The last time the number was below a thousand on November 29th, at least 822 people died within 24 hours.
In the United States, vaccinations against the novel corona virus began in December.
Almost ten percent of all US citizens have now received their full vaccination protection, which corresponds to around 31.5 million people.
On Monday, the US authorities allowed more contact for these people, they are now allowed to meet other vaccinated people in closed rooms without a mask and a minimum distance.
Stiko chairman: countries are ignoring vaccination regulations
4.45 a.m
.:
The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), Thomas Mertens, has criticized the federal states for arbitrarily disregarding the federal vaccination ordinance.
"In fact, prioritization has been violated in the countries for a long time," said the Ulm virologist in an interview with the dpa.
Many have already been vaccinated who, according to the scientific criteria of prioritization, have not yet had their turn.
If educators, teachers or police officers are already being vaccinated, Mertens believes that the governments are moving away from the goal of protecting the weakest and most at risk for severe Covid-19 courses first.
However, loosening the prioritization should not lead to them being disadvantaged.
At the same time, he said that the sequence of vaccinations has so far shown its desired effect.
"The prioritization with a view to individual protection works," said Mertens.
The data from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for example, showed that there are already significantly fewer serious illnesses and deaths in the group of people over 80.
If enough vaccine is soon available in Germany, it should therefore read: "Do one thing without leaving the other," said Mertens.
The virologist expects the vaccination sequence to be further weakened due to the start of vaccinations by general practitioners.
These would "possibly make prioritization more difficult."
But he trusts the general practitioners to adhere to the recommendations of the Stiko as far as possible with their patients.
Regarding the sometimes loud criticism of the slow progress with the corona vaccinations, Mertens said he could understand both sides.
The countries would have to manage the shortage of vaccine, at the same time many people who, according to the prioritization, have not yet had their turn to be vaccinated.
"The prioritization was and is not the real problem, but the lack of vaccine," said Mertens.
The lack of options for implementing the vaccination sequence is also a problem.
Regarding a subsequent vaccination with a second corona vaccine, Mertens said that it was initially important that the first two vaccinations were made with the same vaccine in order to achieve complete immunization.
From an immunological point of view, however, it should not be a problem to receive a vaccination with an mRNA vaccine such as that from Biontech following a basic vaccination with a vector vaccine such as AstraZeneca.
There are initial studies on this question in Great Britain.
With a view to the further course of the pandemic, the Stiko chairman considers it possible that in the future, as against the flu, a vaccination against the coronavirus will be necessary.
In view of the increasing vaccine deliveries, Mertens said he did not hope that we would have to discuss a lack of vaccination anytime soon.
But this is another reason why the protection of the weakest remains so important.
Laschet calls for consequences from the mask affair in the Union
3.30 a.m.:
In the mask affair, CDU leader Armin Laschet asked Union politicians to "clean the table".
"If anyone has done such business, he has very quick time to tell me personally before it is noticed, so that the consequences can be drawn," he said on Monday in the ARD Tagesthemen.
He doesn't know if there are any other cases: “But if there are, now is the time to clean things up.
If not, we'll do it. "
As CDU leader, he wanted to take care of "modernization in the next few years" and would not allow this project to be destroyed "by individual MPs going it alone who had nothing else on their minds than earning money," said Laschet.
The head of the Union faction had previously promised to clear up the events "with great consistency".
It will also be clarified "whether other members of the Bundestag have received cash benefits for the procurement of protective equipment or the like".
The members of the Bundestag Nikolas Löbel and Georg Nüßlein are said to have collected six-figure commissions for brokering business with corona protective masks.
They drew the consequences from massive pressure from within the party.
Löbel resigned his parliamentary mandate and, according to press reports, also resigned from the CDU, Nüßlein ended his membership in the CSU, but wants to remain in parliament until the end of the legislative period.
Germany is apparently losing thousands of nurses in the pandemic
1:50 a.m.:
According to a media report, Germany has lost thousands of nurses since the beginning of the corona pandemic.
The decline affects hospitals as well as elderly care, reported the newspapers of the Funke media group, citing previously unpublished figures from the Federal Employment Agency (BA), which the left parliamentary group asked.
Accordingly, the number of employees in care fell by more than 9,000 between the beginning of April and the end of July 2020 - this corresponds to a decrease of 0.5 percent.
In total, around 1.8 million people were recently employed in nursing care in Germany.
Before the pandemic, however, the number of employees in the care industry rose slightly.
According to the report, nursing in clinics was particularly hard hit by the recent decline.
The decrease in the number of employees was accordingly in the first high phase of the corona crisis at 5124. In the elderly, the number of employees fell by 3885 in the period from the beginning of April to the end of July - a total of 9009 fewer nurses.
According to the report, all 16 federal states were affected.
In the clinical area, the decline in staff is greatest in Bremen with 1.7 percent, followed by Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate.
In the care of the elderly, Hessen recorded the largest slump with a minus of 1.6 percent.
This was followed by Bremen, Bavaria, Hamburg and Lower Saxony.
The left-wing spokeswoman for care policy in the Bundestag, Pia Zimmermann, blamed Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) for this development and accused the government of exacerbating the situation by failing to financially structure health and long-term care insurance.
"Additional and significantly better paid nursing staff are needed immediately." For this purpose, top earners who have hitherto been privately insured would have to "pay uniform and solidarity contributions on all their income."
Transparency calls for stricter sanctions after the mask affair
1.30 a.m.:
The anti-corruption organization Transparency is calling for consequences for parliamentary operations in the mask affair surrounding Union politicians Georg Nüßlein and Nikolas Löbel.
"The rules of procedure of the Bundestag would have to be supplemented and certain forms of lobbying, as with Nüßlein and Löbel, explicitly sanctioned," says Transparency Germany boss Hartmut Bäumer, the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The parliamentary groups should set up similar internal regulations, "with a graduated sanction mechanism from warning to parliamentary group exclusion".
Statutory health insurance physicians: Spahn created test chaos right at the start
0.50 a.m.:
The resident doctors have accused Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) of causing a test chaos.
The increased use of rapid tests is finally coming, "but unfortunately in an absolutely short-term, even formally retroactive implementation, which led to chaos right from the start," said the vice-chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Stephan Hofmeister, the editorial network Germany .
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Jens Spahn
Photo: Frederic Kern / imago images / Future Image
The ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Health, which regulates the basics of the tests, did not reach the doctors until Monday, said Hofmeister.
"It's no wonder that the resident colleagues feel overwhelmed." It is apparently forgotten that "the statutory medical practices see, diagnose and treat millions of acutely and chronically ill patients every day, and are already at full capacity."
Prerequisites for an offer in medical practices are "sufficient availability of tests that are available early in the practices and a clear, unbureaucratic and timely procedure," said Hofmeister.
In principle, however, the increased use of rapid tests makes sense, he added.
The KBV had already called for this in its discussion paper in October.
Tschentscher warns of the risk of a new lockdown
0.15 a.m.:
Hamburg's mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) has warned of the risk of a new lockdown in the corona crisis.
"I definitely see the risk of a new lockdown, which is why I pleaded for greater restraint with the openings," Tschentscher told the editorial network Germany (RND).
“We are already in a third wave, which will be determined by the new virus variants.
It is now important that it does not become too violent and that we bridge the time until the vaccinations have progressed sufficiently. "
The pressure of expectation for quick easing was great, said Tschentscher.
He thinks fast, large opening steps are risky.
"Our concept now includes a so-called emergency brake regulation if the number of infections in a federal state or region becomes too high." It is clear: "We are still in a critical pandemic.
Many doctors and virologists fear that we are going too far with the opening strategy we have decided. "
“There are countries that go from total lockdown with curfews to large openings and then go back into lockdown.
This is not a good concept for health protection and for the economy, "said the SPD politician.
With an increasing vaccination rate in the vulnerable population groups, Germany could certainly afford higher incidences.
"But it's not that far yet."
Icon: The mirror
cop / dpa / AFP / Reuters / sid / AP
