During the past 24 hours, Germany saw a record number of more than 76,000 new infections with the Corona virus. Health Minister Jens Spahn has called for limiting contact and the use of brakes. “The more we pay, the better,” he pleaded. The head of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wheeler, estimated that the country was “at a crossroads”. – He said: – We can choose a path that leads to chaos or a path that eases the health care system.
During the last day, in Germany There have been 76,414 new infections reported, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The seven-day infection rate rose to 438.2, the highest ever. The rate of hospitalized COVID-19 patients last week was 5.8 per 100,000 population.
Health Minister Jens Spahn called for contacts to be scaled back and work to be “stopped”. – The number of contacts should decrease, and significantly – he said during a joint press conference with RKI President Lothar Manier. “The more we push the brakes, the better.” (…]The situation is very serious, it has not been dangerous since the beginning of the epidemic – he explained.
Spahn called for the consistent application of 2G-Plus principles (acceptance for vaccination and convalescence tested negative for COVID-19).
Rule 2G (admission only for vaccinated and convalescent people) placed in front of the entrance to the Christmas market in Cologne, GermanyPAP / EPA / SASCHA STEINBACH
The Minister of Health does not want to wait
The minister also criticized a statement on Thursday by Green Party chairwoman (and future German chief of diplomacy) Annalena Barbock, who suggested refraining from any restrictions for another 10 days to “consider the situation”.
“The transfer of power between the old and new governments should not lead to delays,” Spahn said. He stressed that “the nurses in intensive care do not have 10 days to wait.”
– The best solution would be to hold a conference of prime ministers of the federal states with the federal government within the next few days – he suggested. In his opinion, it is already necessary to postpone elective operations in clinics and transfer patients from areas where there are no vacancies in intensive care units.
Jens Spahn at a conference on the epidemic in BerlinPAP / EPA / FILIP SINGER
“By the end of this winter, everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recover or die,” Spahn warned at Monday’s conference. Freedom means taking responsibility, and society has a duty to vaccinate, he explained.
‘We are at a crossroads’
The RKI chief also called for fewer communications. “Let’s all help break this fourth wave,” Wheeler pleaded, stressing that the dangerous course of the epidemic could be prevented without infecting others. – He said that with every contact we avoid, with every meeting we abandon, and with every crowd we avoid, we prevent the spread of the virus.
He also noted that during the coming winter a lot will depend on our behavior. – We’re at a crossroads. Wheeler argues that we can choose a path that leads to chaos or a path that eases the health care system.
They run “flying intensive care units”
On Friday, specially equipped planes from the German Air Force – Lutfwaffe – will transport patients from Bavaria in the southeast, where there are no longer beds available in intensive care units, to North Rhine-Westphalia in the northwest.
The Army will use two Airbus A310 MedEvac aircraft to transport patients who need intensive care. According to the German news agency (dpa), the first of them will land at Bavarian Memmingen Airport on Friday at two in the afternoon, from which seriously ill patients will be transferred to Münster Osnabrück (North Rhine-Westphalia).
Jens Spahn and Lothar WheelerPAP / EPA / FILIP SINGER
“These planes are flying in the intensive care units,” explains the daily Tagesspiegel. Currently, the Air Force has two such aircraft, ready for a rescue mission. There are six treatment areas on their roofs, as well as two specially prepared intensive care units. The A400M MedEvac Military Machine is also ready to use.
As part of the so-called alfalfa system, that is, the patient transport system within neighboring provinces and federal states that was developed at the start of the 2020 pandemic, patients infected with COVID-19 should be able to quickly find a free bed across the country, the paper explained.
According to the principles developed by the Society for Intensive Care (Divi), resettlement primarily concerns patients in a stable condition in intensive care. Transfer of patients with illnesses other than COVID-19 will only be permitted in exceptional cases.
Airbus A310-900 MRTT MedEvac was photographed in April 2018stock struggle
The worst in Saxony, which borders Poland
Saxony is currently the only federal state in which the weekly limit exceeds the maximum limit of 1,000 per 100,000 inhabitants (according to data – 1,192.8). It is followed by Thuringia (805.7) and Saxony-Anhalt (668.8). By comparison, in Hamburg and Lower Saxony, the weekly incidence is around 200, and in Schleswig-Holstein it is only 152.8.
According to RKI data, there are currently 34 provinces in Germany with a weekly infection rate of more than 1,000. In the Erzgebirge region (Saxony) it is a record high in 2006.2.
Shopping street in BremenPAP / EPA / FOCKE STRANGMANN
Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 100,000 deaths of people with COVID-19 have been recorded in Germany. The number of deaths from this disease has been increasing for several days. In the past 24 hours, there were 357 of them, and a week ago – 201. According to Reuters data, 68.3 percent have already been fully vaccinated in Germany. citizens.
Main image source: PAP / EPA / CONSTANTIN ZINN
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