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Corona test center in Freital
Photo: Sebastian Kahnert / dpa
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Covid hospital admissions rate is falling
5:05 a.m.:
The quick vaccination of old people in Germany in the pandemic apparently has positive effects on hospital admissions. According to the data from the Robert Koch Institute, the proportion of admissions due to Covid-19 in clinics has not increased since the end of February. It persisted at seven to eight percent of the reported infected. Late registrations cannot be ruled out for the currently lowest number of four percent, the RKI announced on request.
For comparison: at the height of the first wave, the proportion of hospital admissions was up to twenty percent of those infected at the time, and up to twelve percent in the second wave.
According to health managers, this already lower value had to do with lessons from the first wave and with advances in preventing serious disease courses.
more on the subject
Third corona wave: Now younger people are the risk group by Julia Köppe
According to the RKI, the corona infections in those over 80 years of age have now decreased significantly compared to the second wave. For example, the weekly incidences among 80 to 90-year-olds were recently between 60 and 74 per 100,000 inhabitants - and thus significantly lower than in all other age groups. When asked by the RKI, this can only be explained by the effect of the vaccination in this age group. Since this group used to make up a large part of the hospitalized cases, this also explains the currently much lower total hospitalization rate.
In the younger age groups (35 to 59 years), however, at least as many patients came to the hospital in the third wave as in the second.
You would usually have to stay there longer than before, especially if you are being treated in intensive care units.
According to the registry of intensive care physicians and the RKI, there are currently around 5,000 people there, more than half (58 percent) require artificial ventilation.
Even intensive care physicians notice that their patients are becoming "younger and younger" compared to the first waves.
More than 200 procedures for the Corona emergency brake registered in Karlsruhe
4:50 a.m.:
According to a report, the flood of complaints against the nationwide emergency brake to contain the corona pandemic does not stop.
The newspapers of the Funke media group reported that 202 proceedings had been submitted to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe by Thursday afternoon, citing a court spokesman.
The number has almost doubled since Tuesday.
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SPIEGEL survey: Large majority welcomes the nationwide Corona emergency brake
Merkel defends the Corona emergency brake: "No country has managed this without tough measures"
According to the report, the constitutional complaints and requests for an interim order are mainly directed against the exit restrictions and the contact restrictions, but in some cases also against all the regulations of the new Infection Protection Act.
The regulations for a nationwide Corona emergency brake came into force last Saturday.
They apply in areas where the seven-day incidence exceeds the limit of 100 new infections per 100,000 population.
If this exists for three consecutive days, the measures will come into effect on the day after that, including contact restrictions and a nightly curfew between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
New York is aiming for a "full reopening" on July 1st
4.10 a.m.:
The US metropolis of New York, which has been hard hit by the corona pandemic, is aiming for a "complete reopening" by July 1st.
Bars, restaurants, shops, fitness clubs, cinemas and museums could then reopen to one hundred percent, said Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday.
"We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now," said de Blasio.
"It's going to be a fantastic summer."
However, the mayor did not provide any information about which security precautions could also apply after July 1.
Many corona restrictions have been imposed by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Both politicians belong to the Democratic Party, but have a difficult relationship with one another.
De Blasio admitted on Thursday that he had not yet spoken to Cuomo about his plans for a "complete reopening".
Most of the world-famous theaters on Broadway are also not expected to open until September.
De Blasio said further progress on the vaccination campaign is needed in the coming weeks.
"Getting everyone vaccinated is the key." 6.4 million vaccine doses have already been injected in the metropolis.
Around 2.4 of the 8.5 million New Yorkers are vaccinated.
By the end of June there should be five million New Yorkers.
As in other parts of the country, however, the pace of vaccinations has recently decreased.
New York was the epicenter of the corona pandemic in the United States last spring.
After strict exit restrictions, the measures have been increasingly relaxed in recent months.
Last week, the city launched a $ 30 million advertising campaign to attract tourists again.
More than 400,000 corona deaths in Brazil
3:05 a.m.:
Brazil has exceeded the mark of 400,000 corona deaths.
Since the pandemic began, 401,186 people have died in connection with Covid-19, according to data from the Ministry of Health in Brasília on Thursday evening (local time).
Only in the USA have more deaths been registered than in Brazil.
After the United States and India, the largest and most populous country in Latin America also has the most infections with 14,590,678 cases.
Brazil only passed the 300,000 corona death mark around 35 days ago, with the number of deaths among the 20 to 39 year olds increasing in particular.
more on the subject
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Thousands of underage Covid-19 deaths in Brazil: "We have no strategy for protecting our children" An interview by Marian Blasberg, Rio de Janeiro
Right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro downplayed the corona virus from the start, and he continues to reject protective measures and restrictions - for economic reasons.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro is also questioning the point of vaccinations.
A parliamentary committee of inquiry began work on Tuesday to shed light on the president's actions and omissions in the runaway pandemic in Brazil.
Bolsonaro is accused, among other things, of rejecting and kidnapping possible deliveries of corona vaccines and of embezzling federal funds in the fight against pandemics.
Intensive care physicians: Vaccinate more in socially disadvantaged areas
02.35 a.m .:
Intensive care physicians have appealed to federal states and municipalities to increasingly carry out corona vaccinations in socially disadvantaged areas in order to relieve the hospitals.
"There are an above-average number of people from poorer sections of the population, people with a migration background and socially disadvantaged people in the intensive care units," said Christian Karagiannidis, the scientific director of the intensive care bed registry of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Divi), of the "Rheinische Post".
»In order to better protect these people and to relieve the intensive care units, all mayors and health authorities should send mobile vaccination teams to the socially disadvantaged areas of their cities.
That would do a lot because the vaccination rate is promising right now, ”Karagiannidis said.
more on the subject
Disagreement and justice and freedom: is it fair if vaccinated people are allowed to do everything again?
Debate about prioritization: "We are bureaucratising a vaccination jam" by Julia Stanek
The German Association of Cities also called for more efforts to vaccinate socially disadvantaged people.
"Social differences must not lead to some of the people being left behind because access to vaccinations is too difficult for them," said City Council General Manager Helmut Dedy to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
In order to address more people individually, mobile vaccination teams would also have to be used more.
The managing director of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, described it in the "Rheinische Post" as important to "provide targeted information to people in socially disadvantaged areas and to provide multilingual information on vaccination".
In addition, people should be supported in keeping their vaccination appointments.
"We currently do not consider prioritization and thus deviating from the vaccination sequence to be expedient," says Landsberg.
More than 150 million confirmed corona infections worldwide
2:05 a.m.:
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of infections detected worldwide has risen to more than 150 million.
This came out on Thursday evening (local time) from data from the US University of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Only a good three months ago, on January 26th, the threshold of 100 million known infections was exceeded.
According to the university, the number of known deaths related to the virus is now more than 3.1 million, one million more than at the end of January.
However, experts assume high unreported numbers of both infections and deaths worldwide.
The website of the US university is regularly updated with incoming data and shows a higher level than the official figures of the World Health Organization (WHO).
In some cases, however, the figures have also been revised downwards.
The WHO counted 149.2 million confirmed infections, 3.1 million deaths and around one billion corona vaccinations administered by Thursday evening.
The global infection process has been heavily influenced by developments in India since around the beginning of April.
In the country with around 1.3 billion inhabitants, the authorities recently reported around 300,000 new infections per day.
According to the latest WHO weekly report, India was responsible for around 38 percent of all infections worldwide.
Most of the confirmed infections are so far with a good 32 million in the USA, a country with around 330 million inhabitants.
In second place is India with around 18 million infections, followed by Brazil (14.5 million) and France (5.7 million).
According to the Johns Hopkins data, there were almost 3.4 million confirmed infections with the Sars-CoV-2 virus in Germany.
cop / AFP / dpa / Reuters
