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Bicycle drive-in for rapid tests in Hamburg
Photo: Ulrich Perrey / dpa
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The chief of the medical officer association finds behavior after the rapid test sometimes critical
04.25 a.m.:
According to an expert, the behavior of some people after a rapid corona test carries risks. “We are now using these rapid tests en masse, but people are not informed of the consequences and the correct behavior. The virus spreads and we don't even see how, "said the chairman of the board of the Federal Association of Doctors of the Public Health Service (BVÖGD), Ute Teichert, of the dpa. You see a threat. "We have to take another very critical look at the subject of testing."
Teichert reported wrong conclusions that people draw after positive and negative test results.
»I have seen several times that people get positive results and are then extremely insecure.
Instead of isolating themselves, they first get more tests because they distrust the first result. ”In doing so, they could spread the virus.
The recommended operating instructions should become better known: It is partly not known "that everyone who tests positive is initially considered to be potentially infectious - until proven otherwise."
more on the subject
Strategy against Corona: Rapid tests are unreliable - but what are the alternatives? By Rafaela von Bredow and Veronika Hackenbroch
Newly approved products: What good are the rapid tests from the supermarket? By Julia Köppe
She also experienced that contact persons of infected people did a quick test and after a negative result believed that they did not have to do anything, said the public health doctor. "A lot of infected people run away under the radar," said Teichert. In the event of a negative test, one must always bear in mind that the result "is only valid for a few hours".
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) had repeatedly stated that after a negative test result, one should not be misled and that protective measures should not be taken.
It is quite possible that an infected person will get a positive result the day after a negative antigen test result, according to an RKI publication from the end of February about self-tests.
In the event of a positive result, "isolation at home" and telephone contact with the family doctor or a suitable test center are advisable in order to initiate a PCR test to clarify the suspicion of corona.
Braun confirms the lifting of vaccination priority
04.15 a.m.:
Chancellery Minister Helge Braun confirms the Federal Government's plans to lift the vaccination prioritization at the beginning of June and thus protect broader groups from the corona virus.
"We are currently getting more vaccine from week to week," says the CDU politician of the "Augsburger Allgemeine".
And that could mean for many people that they can get vaccinated much earlier than they feared.
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Chancellery Minister Helge Braun
Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
According to Braun, the schedule looks like this: "If the manufacturers deliver as they have promised us, then we will get enough vaccine in the course of May that we can make a vaccination offer to everyone who has a priority," says Braun.
And then, from June, vaccination could begin via company doctors and general practitioners, as well as the general population.
New record of deaths in Argentina
3:05 a.m.:
At the beginning of autumn in the southern hemisphere, the second corona wave hit Argentina hard: With 537 deaths within 24 hours, the South American country recorded the day with the most Covid-19 victims since the beginning of the pandemic a good year ago, as announced by the Ministry of Health in Buenos Aires on Thursday. At the same time, 27,216 new infections were reported - one of the highest values in the past year. A total of around 2.8 million people in Argentina have been shown to be infected with the coronavirus, and over 60,000 patients have so far died in connection with Covid-19.
After one of the longest lockdowns in the world last year, the Argentine government recently imposed strict exit restrictions on large parts of the South American country.
There is a curfew in the greater Buenos Aires area from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
All social, sporting, cultural and religious events in closed rooms are prohibited.
Schools and kindergartens are to close by the end of April.
Another lockdown in regions of Japan
02:25 a.m.:
Three months before the start of the Olympic Games, Japan is trying to prevent the pandemic from resurrecting with another lockdown.
In Tokyo, Osaka and two other prefectures, the state of emergency will apply from April 25 to May 11, says Minister of Economic Affairs Yasutoshi Nishimura.
Restaurants serving alcohol would have to close and major sporting events could only take place without spectators.
General Practitioners Association: The end of the vaccination prioritization in June is "devastating"
more on the subject
Before the new federal-state round: Spahn expects corona vaccinations to be released for everyone from June
1:55 a.m.:
From the point of view of the German Association of General Practitioners, the end of vaccination prioritization announced for early summer comes disappointingly late.
It was "devastating news for everyone who had hoped to get out of the pandemic faster," said the vice-chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners, Berthold Dietsche, to the newspapers of the "Funke Mediengruppe".
If vaccine had been ordered early and, above all, in larger quantities, then Germany would have long since left the "snail's pace in vaccinating", said Dietsche.
Because as soon as enough vaccine is available, prioritization is done anyway.
The President of the Medical Association calls for the release of reserves for vaccination doses
0.40 a.m.:
The German Medical Association calls for more speed when vaccinating against the corona virus. "It is unacceptable that more than five million vaccine doses are stored unused in Germany, while thousands of people are newly infected with corona every day," said the President of the Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, of the German editorial network (RND). The goal must be to immunize as many people as possible against the virus. “To do this, the reserves held back in the vaccination centers for the second vaccination must be released as much as possible. This is justifiable due to the expected delivery quantities in the second quarter. "
All other unused vaccine doses should be passed on to the doctor's office as soon as possible, demanded Reinhardt. As a rule, no vaccines were left there, also because the vaccination ordinance gives doctors leeway in implementing the sequence of vaccinations. Reinhardt saw the fact that several federal states did not prioritize the vaccination of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a vote of confidence in the resident doctors. "I very much hope that we will be able to do without priorities nationwide if, as announced, sufficient vaccines are available for all citizens from the end of May," said the medical president.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) announced on Thursday that the prioritization of vaccinations against the corona virus could be lifted in June.
In Saxony, Bavaria, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, the AstraZeneca vaccine was released for all age groups this week.
Initiative to fight Covid-19 needs more money
0.25 a.m.:
The global initiative to deal with the corona pandemic has achieved a lot a year after it was founded, but it lacks money.
In mid-April, $ 22 billion was still outstanding to finance the planned activities this year, as the coordinators of the ACT-Accelerator initiative report on the anniversary of its founding.
In the past twelve months, however, a lot has been achieved: Among other things, the program has funded 15 clinical studies on possible drugs, procured 65 million affordable antigen tests for poorer countries, invested in twelve vaccine candidates and obtained more than two billion vaccine doses from manufacturers Participants in the program secured.
The journal "The Lancet" criticizes the fact that the financing is like a traditional development aid model that depends on the goodwill of rich donors.
One alternative is a two percent wealth tax to finance global public health.
cop / dpa / AFP / AP / Reuters
