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Lothar Wieler (archive image): Warns to comply with the corona rules
Photo: Andreas Gora / POOL / EPA
According to the Robert Koch Institute, the third corona wave has started in Germany.
"We have very clear signs of this: The third wave has already started in Germany," said RKI President Lothar Wieler in an interview with the UN Journalists' Association (ACANU) in Geneva.
"I am very worried." Protective measures such as wearing a mask and keeping your distance must still be followed urgently despite vaccinations.
The vaccination campaign is a race against the mutating virus.
The finish line is in sight: If there are no interruptions due to production downtimes or other reasons, 80 percent of the population could be immune to the virus by autumn.
"If that is the case, all measures can be lifted," said Wieler.
He assumes that refreshments will be necessary after the first rounds of vaccination - at what intervals is not yet clear.
One year after the pandemic was declared
The WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
At the time, 118,000 infections were reported worldwide and almost 4,300 people had died after being infected.
A year later, according to WHO statistics, there are almost 120 million reported infections worldwide and a good 2.6 million deaths.
The WHO's main concern is the uneven distribution of vaccines.
If the virus spreads unhindered in some regions of the world, it can mutate and the variants could again become a threat for the whole world, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns constantly.
Because rich countries have direct contracts with the vaccine companies, fewer doses are available on the market for the Covax solidarity vaccine initiative.
In the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, the eighth attempt on Wednesday failed to demand that more than 100 countries temporarily suspend patents on corona vaccines in order to boost production.
Wealthy countries and the pharmaceutical industry say that all production capacities are already being used through licensing agreements.
The Indian ambassador contradicted this.
Rich countries continued to block the advance, the next talks will take place in mid-April.
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bbr / dpa