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Corona-News: Infectiologist calls for mandatory vaccination to be quickly extended to other professional groups

2022-01-20T06:49:42.706Z


In view of the rapidly increasing number of cases, an infectiologist is demanding compulsory vaccination for all employees in critical infrastructure. A US study shows that those who have recovered are better protected from infection at Delta than those who have been vaccinated. The overview.


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Vaccination in Berlin

Photo: Filip Singer / EPA-EFE

Because of corona concerns: US broadcaster NBC reports from home during the Olympics

7.09 a.m .:

The US television station NBC will report largely from home during the Olympic Games in Beijing due to the tense corona situation. As the media group announced, with the exception of the opening ceremony, no commentator and moderator teams will be sent to China. Only a few interviewers and a few other reporters are planned in the Chinese capital.

"The Beijing model will be similar to Tokyo in that the heart of our Olympic operation will be in Stamford, Connecticut, at the NBC Sports headquarters," executive producer Molly Solomon told USA Today.

In particular, the fear of long quarantine stays after positive corona tests led to this decision.

In order to always ensure a certain quality, however, the staff is "divided between the two cities," she explained.

Brazil reports more than 200,000 new corona cases in one day for the first time

5.36 a.m .:

Brazil has registered more than 200,000 daily new corona infections for the first time. The Ministry of Health in Brasília reported 204,854 new cases in the past 24 hours on Wednesday evening. There were also 338 new deaths in that 24-hour period. The day before, the largest country in Latin America had recorded a high of 137,103 new infections.

According to official figures, more than 23 million people have been infected with the corona virus in Brazil, where the first citizen was vaccinated in January 2021.

Almost 622,000 patients have died related to Covid-19 - one of the highest death tolls worldwide.

Brazil has 210 million inhabitants and is 24 times the size of Germany.

As the vaccination campaign progressed, the number of new deaths fell sharply.

Right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro played down the corona virus from the start, rejecting protective measures and restrictions for economic reasons.

Bolsonaro also questioned the sense of vaccinations.

Nevertheless, almost 70 percent of the population is now completely vaccinated.

WHO: Corona pandemic remains "emergency of international concern"

5.15

a.m .

:

The World Health Organization (WHO) does not initially lift the health emergency due to the corona pandemic.

The situation remains an "emergency of international concern" (PHEIC), the WHO decided, as announced in Geneva on Wednesday.

The declaration of such an emergency is the highest alarm signal that WHO can give.

This is intended to alert governments to prepare for a potentially dangerous health risk.

In addition, this entails special reporting obligations for the member countries.

The WHO declared a state of emergency due to Corona on January 30, 2020.

At the time, around 100 infections in 21 countries outside of China were known.

As of this week, there have been more than 326 million infections reported worldwide and more than 5.5 million deaths.

There is no formal WHO declaration as to whether a health situation is a pandemic or not.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus first described the corona situation as a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

A health emergency is declared on the recommendation of a panel of independent experts.

Nationwide seven-day incidence reaches next high at 638.8

4.10 a.m .:

The incidence value and the new corona infections in Germany have reached the next maximum values.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the seven-day incidence on Thursday morning as 638.8.

The day before the value was 584.4, a week ago it was 427.7.

According to data from the health authorities, the number of new infections within 24 hours was 133,536 – after 112,323 the day before and 81,417 a week ago.

It was the seventh day in a row with a new record incidence and the second day with a new high in new infections.

The incidence quantifies the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over a period of seven days.

Furthermore, 234 new deaths related to the corona virus were counted on Thursday.

According to the latest information from the institute, the health authorities have recorded a total of 8,320,386 cases of infection since the beginning of the pandemic.

The total number of registered corona deaths in Germany rose to 116,315.

The institute put the number of people in Germany who had recovered from an illness caused by the coronavirus at around 7,139,800.

Study on breast milk: Mothers with Covid-19 can breastfeed without hesitation

3.50 a.m .:

As the number of omicron infections increases, so do the concerns of many breastfeeding mothers: In the event of infection, could they pass the corona virus on to their baby with their breast milk?

A US study seems to give the all-clear here again: there is no evidence that recently infected mothers transmit contagious viruses to their children through breastfeeding, the doctors report in the specialist journal "Pediatric Research".

Although the study is very small, it confirms the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the German National Breastfeeding Commission.

  • You can read the original of the study here: No infectious SARS-CoV-2 in breast milk from a cohort of 110 lactating women

Infected mothers should, however, take some precautions when breastfeeding: They should minimize the risk of virus transmission when breastfeeding by washing their hands thoroughly before and after contact with the child and by wearing a mouth and nose protector, according to an NSK statement.

In addition, cleaning and/or disinfecting contaminated surfaces is recommended for infected or potentially infected people who are in contact with children.

US study: recovery protects against new infection better than vaccination in the delta variant

3.41 a.m .:

A new US study by the US health authority CDC comes to the conclusion that during the last corona wave, people who were not vaccinated but recovered were better protected against re-infection than those who were vaccinated but not recovered.

However, the paper's authors cautioned against relying on infection as an immunization strategy because unvaccinated individuals who were not previously infected are at greater risk of hospitalization, long-term complications and death compared to vaccinated individuals.

In addition, the study referred to the time before the appearance of the omicron variant in the USA.

This is considered to be much more contagious, but the disease seems to be milder.

For the study, the scientists used data from the US states of New York and California. She used case data from 1.1 million people who tested positive for Corona there between May 30 and November 30, 2021. Thus, before the delta variant became predominant, vaccination conferred stronger immunity than infection. However, the ratio shifted as the variant became dominant in late June and July.

In the week of October 3, vaccinated people who had not yet had Covid were three to four times more likely to be infected than unvaccinated, recovered people. In the weeks of October 13 to November 14 in California, vaccinated individuals who did not previously have Covid were about three times more likely to be hospitalized than unvaccinated individuals with prior Covid disease. Protection was highest among people who were both vaccinated and recovered.

However, the CDC warns that the effectiveness of vaccination versus recovery could vary depending on the virus variant.

Accordingly, further studies are needed, in particular on the new Omicron variant.

"Vaccination is still the safest strategy for protection against Covid-19," says the study.

Pharmacists' Association calls for the end of the PCR test obligation

2:00

a.m.: The North Rhine-Westphalia Association of Pharmacists has called for an end to the mandatory PCR test.

"We now have to take a different approach to the test strategy in order to avoid overloading the laboratories," said association head Thomas Preis of the Düsseldorf "Rheinische Post".

Positive test results from the citizen test centers managed by pharmacists or doctors should also be used to report an infection to the employer and to be considered recovered after the infection has been overcome.

"Most positive citizen tests are currently only confirmed once again using a complex PCR test," said Preis.

Due to the high number of infections in the omicron wave, laboratories across Germany are currently reaching their limits when evaluating the PCR tests.

Lauterbach expects hundreds of thousands of new infections per day

0.15 a.m .:

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) expects several hundred thousand new

corona

infections a day by mid-February. With a view to realistic scenarios, it can be assumed “that the wave will peak around mid-February and that we will then have to expect several hundred thousand cases a day,” said Lauterbach on Wednesday evening in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz”. It is not said that the scenarios will come about, but "they have the greatest probability".

There are countries that could cope with such numbers with a view to the intensive care units, but the situation in Germany is different.

"Since we have a high number of unvaccinated among the elderly in Germany, things can turn out very differently here than in Italy, France or England, for example," said Lauterbach.

In England, for example, the number of unvaccinated people over the age of 50 is one to two percent.

»These are values ​​that we cannot reach«.

oka/AFP/dpa/Reuters

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-01-20

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