German Health Minister Jens Spahn called for a continuation of the harsh conditions of exclusion in Germany, saying it was necessary to prevent a “significant deterioration” of the current situation despite a slowdown in the infection rate.
Germany’s death toll rose to more than 51,000 on Thursday, rising to an average of 1,000 deaths a day for several weeks.
Spahn told a news conference, flanked by the head of the government agency for disease control, the country’s leading chorologist virologist and head of intensive care medicine, that the measures should apply until at least ‘end of February or until March. ”. He cites the dangers of mutations first detected in England, South Africa and Brazil as a factor behind the decision.
Germany reported nearly 18,000 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, about 4,000 less than a week ago.
Spahn said he can understand the confusion of many Germans as to why the measures have been expanded and intensified in recent days, despite a drop in numbers. Public discontent is reflected in a spate of emails, phone calls and letters he has received, he said.
‘The numbers from the last few days are encouraging. They are going in the right direction. The infection rate drops. We are seeing the first relaxation in intensive care units … but it is still a significant burden for many Covid-19 patients in the intensive care units and in the hospital.
“But the numbers are still too high, and what we need is to use the intensified measures, despite the many hardships it entails, to suppress the numbers … so that this virus is controllable,” he said.
Germany’s coronavirus rate has been too high for months to allow contact detection, which according to Spahn is an important tool for controlling the disease.
With nearly 5,000 beds for intensive care units currently admitted to Covid-19 patients, Spahn insisted that it is essential to reduce the numbers admitted to the hospital to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed.
“If we look at other countries in Europe, we can see how quickly the situation flares up again,” he said, referring later to Britain and Portugal.
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Spahn has once again been criticized for the slow progress of Germany’s vaccination program compared to other countries such as Britain. He said he was confident it would increase rapidly once production capacity increased – with the expectation that a new factory for the BioNTech company would be completed next month. The AstraZeneca vaccine will also be available in Germany within the next few days.
So far, 1.5 million people have gotten the jab, Spahn said. He said that 60% of the residents of care homes have so far been given a first chance, and in total, 80% have been offered and accepted the offer. The survey rate was also currently higher than expected among care workers, of which about 80% have so far accepted the offer.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that all citizens could expect to be presented by September 21.
Spahn said there is no plan to delay access to second jabs. He said the German government would follow scientific advice that the highest protection be provided if the gap between the first and second dose is between three and six weeks.
Since the focus was initially on the most vulnerable, he said he did not want to risk a situation in which a mutation could escape, which particularly exposes older people to infection.
‘The clear recommendation from our vaccine commission was and remains that the time gap between the first and second dose should be between three and a maximum of six weeks … Scientists have explained to us that the risk of waiting can mean that there is no adequate protection against are no longer virulent mutations. With this in mind, we stick to the original schedule. ”