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Christian Drosten: "We have too many unvaccinated people in Germany"
Photo: FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS
The federal government and prominent virologists have cautiously expressed their optimism about the possible effects of the Omikron wave in Germany - but at the same time warned of a growing health risk for unvaccinated people. "We have too many unvaccinated people in Germany, just over 60, and they are of course in real danger, so it's getting really dangerous for them," said Berlin virologist Christian Drosten on Friday on Deutschlandfunk. Drosten and Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) also referred to studies on the somewhat rarer, severe disease courses caused by Omikron.
According to the latest weekly report from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the Omikron share of infections in Germany is increasing rapidly.
It is unclear how high the omicron wave is.
Because of the holidays, fewer people go to doctor's offices and there are fewer tests overall, which is why the current figures are less meaningful.
Current doubling time: probably around four days
Drosten explained that there is probably a somewhat slower omicron growth rate in Germany than in England.
There were last 189,000 new corona infections per day there, in Germany 41,240.
In Great Britain there is a doubling of the omicron cases every two days, in this country about every four days, so Drosten.
In his New Year's address, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said: "Let's do everything together - but really everything - so that we can finally defeat Corona in the new year."
“Now it depends on speed.
We have to be faster than the virus, ”said Scholz, according to the speech that was spread in advance.
Drosten was skeptical when asked whether Germany could quasi boost itself out of the Omikron wave.
"If the rate of spread is significantly slower in Germany and if it is also checked again in January, then that is theoretically conceivable, but I would consider it difficult," he said.
The Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck expressed the hope that “we will get a milder wave” on the program “RTL Direkt”.
Virologists and the government are confident that an infection with Omikron is very likely to be milder than with previous variants.
The data increased for this, said Drosten.
An unvaccinated person with Omicron infection carries three quarters of the risk of hospitalizing an unvaccinated person with Delta.
Lauterbach wrote on Twitter about the data from South Africa, which showed "that Omikron spread 4 times as fast as Delta, but caused significantly less severe cases."
However, the study does not allow any clear conclusions to be drawn about older unvaccinated people.
Another big challenge for intensive care medicine
The head of the intensive care register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (Divi), Christian Karagiannidis, told the Rheinische Post: “The sheer number of new infections that we are currently heading for could still pose major challenges for intensive care capacities more but the hospitalization overall. «According to the RKI, a sudden increase in infections and an overload of the health system and other areas of care is to be expected.
From Drosten's point of view, it is relatively clear that the known contact restrictions must continue to exist. The next Prime Minister's Conference on the Corona situation is scheduled for January 7th. Lauterbach had announced proposals for the coming week. It is about what the dynamic increase in Omikron cases means for the contact reductions and the duration of quarantine times.
According to Drosten, people without a vaccination are not necessarily protected from corona after surviving an Omikron infection: »We cannot simply rely on those who have not yet been vaccinated and then receive Omikron for the first time that they are also protected against Delta and any previous viruses that will co-circulate, ”he said.
Vaccinated people, on the other hand, would have broad protection against the variants after a further vaccination adapted to Omikron.
It is expected that vaccines adapted to Omikron will be available in the spring.
wbr / dpa