Dhe medical union of the Marburger Bund is calling for an extension of the hard lockdown in view of the situation in the hospitals. The burden of caring for Covid 19 patients continued to rise over the holidays, said union chairman Susanne Johna to the newspapers of the Funke media group. The clinics have no breathing space.
“The health system urgently needs relief that can only be achieved by extending the measures to restrict contact. Otherwise we will not get the situation under control, ”said Johna. In addition, more and more patients in the intensive care units and infection wards have to be cared for with fewer and fewer staff because hospital staff are also infected with the virus. This extreme workload cannot be shouldered permanently.
She would therefore like the conference of prime ministers on Tuesday to have an “extension of the contact restrictions as uniformly as possible,” said the Marburger Bund chairwoman. Hopes of a quick relaxation of the situation due to the start of the corona vaccination, Johna dampened: “Despite all optimism, it must be clear to us that the vaccination can hardly be expected to reduce the risk of infection at least in the first three months of the new year.”
The doctor rejected proposals to change the corona strategy and only protect risk groups: “The more than 20 million people of old age or with previous illnesses can only be consistently protected if the transmission of the virus to the entire population decreases. “
According to the “Rheinischer Post”, the president of the Association of Intensive Care and Emergency Physicians, Uwe Janssens, does not expect lasting relaxation in the intensive care units until the summer. “We intensive care physicians urgently advise against any easing of the prospect of an incidence of less than 25 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week,” he said. “We won’t see in the hospitals until the end of next week how much Christmas has contributed to the spread of Covid-19. The effects of New Year’s Eve even later. “
Economic experts are also warning of easing
The President of the Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, told the “Bild” newspaper that one had to make it clear to people that “we are now two, three or four months ago, which will require everyone’s efforts”.
Economic experts are also warning of easing. “For the economy it must have top priority that the second wave of infections is limited as quickly as possible,” said the President of the German Institute for Economic Research, Marcel Fratzscher, of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “Economic easing now may benefit some in the short term, but it would harm everyone in the long term.”
Lauterbach considers the opening of daycare centers and primary schools to be possible
A reopening of daycare centers and elementary schools from the second half of January is, according to the opinion of the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach, possible under certain conditions. “The prerequisite would be that all other grade levels would be divided and alternately receive classroom and digital lessons. Or face-to-face teaching is completely suspended, ”said Lauterbach of the Düsseldorf“ Rheinische Post ”(Saturday).
“If all schools open again like they did before the holidays, we run the risk that we will not even reach the incidence value of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week despite lockdowns,” he warned. “So that would be a big mistake.” It has been scientifically proven that children from the age of twelve are just as contagious as adults.
The new infection value of 50 is the target agreed by the federal and state governments. Below that, the pandemic is considered controllable. The national average is currently over 140. The state premiers want to discuss with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on January 5 how the nationwide lockdown will continue after January 10. Before that, the ministers of education will discuss the situation in schools on Monday.
Rapid approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine needed
In view of the shortage of vaccines, Lauterbach pushed for faster approval of the active ingredient from the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and, if necessary, brought about a German solo attempt. He also thinks it is right to start with a single vaccination for all available vaccines: “This would probably prevent a lot of serious cases in the next twelve weeks,” said Lauterbach.
The health expert criticized the lack of vaccine doses. It is very unfortunate that Europe “has bought so little of the expensive American vaccine from Moderna”. It was clear very early on that the Moderna vaccine was very effective and could be used in general practitioners’ practices: “That would not be a disadvantage now,” said Lauterbach. “Even more Biontech vaccine would not have been wrong.” One had probably hoped too much for later and perhaps cheaper vaccines. “If Germany itself or the EU had ordered more Biontech vaccination doses from the start, we would be much further ahead,” said Lauterbach.
Approval of Moderna vaccine expected next week
In response to allegations that the federal government had to order more of the Biontech vaccine, the health expert of the Greens parliamentary group, Kordula Schulz-Asche, pointed out in the “Welt” (Saturday) that the Biontech vaccine was only in the test phase in the summer has been.
The federal government expects up to 12 million doses of the only approved vaccine from the manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer, with which six million people could be vaccinated, for the first quarter. In addition, she expects the approval of the preparation from Moderna already next week. Immunization of at least 50 million people is considered necessary for a victory over the pandemic in Germany.
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