Enlarge image
Pedestrian zone in Kiel
Photo: Axel Heimken / dpa
This article will be continuously updated.
Don't miss anything anymore: Subscribe to our coronavirus newsletter for the latest developments and the most important background information.
Pfizer is applying for approval for
Corona
tablets in Japan
4:16 a.m .:
According to its own statements, Pfizer has applied for approval for its pills for the treatment of Covid-19 in Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed he spoke to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla last month to secure two million doses of the pill for Japan.
Medical officers warn against rapid tests for free testing from
corona
isolation
3:50 a.m .:
The German medical officers warn against using rapid tests as a means of free testing for infected people in isolation: "As long as it is unclear which rapid tests reliably recognize the omicron variant, it is problematic to use rapid tests as an alternative to PCR To set tests, "said the chairwoman of the Federal Association of Doctors in the Public Health Service (BVÖGD), Ute Teichert, to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
"If the PCR tests become scarce, as expected, we are heading for a difficult situation." According to the new quarantine rules that the federal and state governments had agreed on, infected people and contact persons can usually be identified after seven days using a PCR test or certified rapid test and thus shorten the period by three days.
The Federal Council wants to discuss the new rules this Friday.
Statutory health insurance physicians criticize Steinmeier's mandatory vaccination debate
2:55 a.m .:
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) is outraged by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s mandatory vaccination discussion with citizens.
"The fact that the Federal President invites you to a dialogue and doesn't have the doctors with you was a clownish highlight of the debate," said the deputy chairman of the KBV, Stephan Hofmeister, of the "Ärzte Zeitung".
Instead, opponents of vaccination had their say with their "far-fetched" objections, Hofmeister complained.
“They can now say that they brought this up to the President and that they were not refuted.
A grotesque.«
Steinmeier had discussed the pros and cons of general corona vaccination with several citizens on Wednesday.
The event was attended by two vaccine skeptics, scientists, a teacher and a nurse.
Another party at the British Prime Minister's seat
2:07 a.m .:
The scandal surrounding parties at the British Prime Minister’s seat of government is spreading: According to a media report, employees of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office have held another celebration – during the lockdown and on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral.
The Telegraph newspaper reported on Thursday that advisers and officials came together in mid-April 2021 to celebrate the departure of two members of the Prime Minister's team.
Johnson is already under massive pressure for violating the corona rules during the first lockdown in May 2020.
On Wednesday he had admitted to attend a garden party at the government headquarters in Downing Street in the British Parliament and apologized.
At that time, the country was in a strict corona lockdown and even meetings of more than two people outdoors were forbidden.
Hospitals see problems with facility-related vaccination requirements
1:12 a.m .:
The German Hospital Society (DKG) and the Verdi union see great legal uncertainty in the implementation of the corona vaccination requirement in facilities with vulnerable people such as clinics and nursing homes. "From March 15, we have to report to the health authorities from whom we have not received proof of vaccination," said DKG boss Gerald Gass to the newspapers of the Funke media group. Then, according to him, the health department would have to approach these people, set them a deadline by which they would have to provide proof and then inform the hospitals about the current status.
"But it is unclear what that means for us if the employees do not present proof of vaccination from March 15th," says Gass.
»Do we release the employees then?
And has that been clearly clarified under labor law?” According to the DKG lawyers, it is not.
WHO recommends two more drugs for corona patients
12:25 a.m .:
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends two other drugs for the treatment of Covid 19 patients.
These are the active ingredient baricitinib, which was developed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, and sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody developed specifically for Covid 19 patients.
The new recommendation is based on seven studies with more than 4,000 patients, the WHO experts reported in the specialist magazine The BMJ.
According to the new guideline, seriously ill corona patients have better chances of survival with baricitinib and the need for artificial ventilation is reduced.
No side effects were observed.
The drug should be administered in combination with corticosteroids.
Covid-19 patients with a less severe course of the disease but a high risk of hospitalization could benefit from the use of the monoclonal antibody sotrovimab, writes the WHO.
The product with the brand name Xevudy is also approved in the EU.
The WHO has already advocated the use of another antibody cocktail, casirivimab/imdevimab.
Hospital society expects heavy loads from normal wards
12:05 a.m .:
The head of the German Hospital Society, Gerald Gass, fears that the normal wards in the clinics will be heavily burdened in view of the increasing number of corona infections. "Above all, we will experience more heavily loaded normal stations," he told the editorial network Germany (RND). "However, this also means that the outpatient sector will face a new challenge." Resident doctors would have to treat their patients more on an outpatient basis in order to avoid hospitals being overwhelmed, said Gass.
"This includes more home visits in old people's homes and for people living alone," said Gass.
"We have to protect the hospitals from being overloaded, because we mustn't forget that there are still over 3,000 Covid patients in the intensive care units." According to him, the hospitals fear that the omicron virus variant will lead to more staff shortages.
"It will therefore be important that the cooperation between the sectors works and that the serious omicron cases that do not require direct hospitalization can be comprehensively treated on an outpatient basis."
Poorer countries refuse donated vaccine doses because of their short shelf life
12:00 a.m.:
Poorer countries have refused around a hundred million doses of vaccine donations in the past month - often because the expiry date is near.
The UN announced on Thursday.
"The majority of refusals were due to expiration dates," said Etleva Kadilli, Unicef director responsible for vaccine distribution.
Poorer countries in particular need vaccine doses that they can keep for a long time in order to better plan vaccination campaigns and to vaccinate “people in hard-to-reach areas and in fragile contexts”.
Nigeria destroyed around a million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine at the end of December because they had expired.
cop/AFP/dpa/Reuters