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A corona test station in Munich
Photo: www.AlexanderPohl.photography / / imago images / aal.photo
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Intensive care
physicians anticipate an increase in corona diseases in children
7.10 a.m.:
In view of the threatened spread of the Omikron variant, intensive care physicians expect an increase in Covid 19 diseases in children. "The number of infected people and thus also of children will increase dramatically," said Florian Hoffmann, pediatric intensive care physician and general secretary of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (Divi), the newspapers of the Funke media group (Saturday editions). Infectiologists advocated shorter intervals between the second and third vaccination.
At the moment it is not yet possible to say whether Omikron also leads to more severe disease courses more often, explained Hoffmann.
But even with milder courses, the high number of infected people alone could mean that in absolute numbers more children would have to go to hospital than now.
"So in any case we have to expect that Omikron will cause more children to fall ill," said the Divi General Secretary.
From the point of view of the chairman of the German Society for Infectious Diseases, Bernd Salzberger, a quick booster vaccination is one of the most important and most effective measures to contain the spread of Omikron.
"In order to achieve that quickly, one also has to think about a possible shortening of the interval to the second dose," Salzberger told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners, Ulrich Weigeldt, was skeptical about early booster vaccinations.
"The decisive guideline for the question of how often and at what intervals corona vaccinations should be given are the decisions made by Stiko," Weigeldt told the Funke newspapers.
The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) recommends a Corona booster vaccination usually six months after completion of the basic vaccination, in individual cases after five months.
General practitioner association views corona vaccination in pharmacies and veterinary practices as critical
6.58 a.m.:
The head of the German Association of
General
Practitioners sees the participation of pharmacists and veterinarians in the corona vaccination campaign as critical.
It is "questionable if, for example, there is no doctor on site in the pharmacy who can intervene in the event of - very rare - complications," said association boss Ulrich Weigeldt of "Bild" (Saturday edition).
He also expects "hardly any effect on the vaccination campaign" from the veterinarians' work in vaccination centers.
In any case, the vast majority of vaccinations would take place in the practices.
"It would be better if as much vaccine as possible reached the practices," added Weigeldt.
According to the head of the association, the fourth booster vaccination against the coronavirus will be required from summer 2022.
"We expect that a fourth vaccination will be necessary in summer, at the latest in autumn," said Weigeldt.
He hoped that the fourth corona vaccination "could already be administered in conjunction with the flu vaccination", "in order to make protection against corona into a routine".
The Bundestag and Bundesrat approved the new Infection Protection Act on Friday, which, in addition to compulsory vaccination for staff in medical care and nursing facilities, also provides for innovations in the vaccination campaign.
Accordingly, dentists, veterinarians and pharmacists can also vaccinate against the coronavirus in the future.
Appropriate training is a prerequisite.
RKI registered 510 new deaths
6.50 a.m
.: The nationwide seven-day incidence has fallen again compared to the previous day. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Saturday morning as 402.9. For comparison: the previous day the value was 413.7. A week ago the nationwide incidence was 442.7 (previous month: 249.1). The health authorities in Germany reported 53,697 new corona infections to the RKI within one day. This can be seen from the numbers that reflect the status of the RKI dashboard at 4:09 a.m. Exactly one week ago there were 64,510 infections.
When evaluating the infection rate, it should be borne in mind that experts are currently assuming a noticeable underreporting.
Health authorities and clinics can no longer keep up with reporting cases, at least in individual regions.
According to the new information, 510 deaths were recorded across Germany within 24 hours.
A week ago there were 465 deaths.
The RKI has counted 6,477,217 detected infections with Sars-CoV-2 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The actual total number is likely to be significantly higher, as many infections are not recognized.
The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI on Friday as 5.71 (Thursday 5.75).
The RKI stated the number of those who had recovered on Saturday at 5,368,300.
The number of people who died with or with a proven infection with Sars-CoV-2 rose to 105,506.
hen / jme / dpa / AFP / Reuters