Incidents continue to rise in Germany trying to accelerate vaccination
The incidence of COVID-19 continues to rise in Germany, where the Omicron variant is expected to dominate next week, and Health Minister Karl Lauterbach explains that the first dose of the vaccine is already effective against the variant.
The accumulated incidence in Germany is currently 222.7 new infections per 100,000 residents in seven days, compared to 220.3 on Saturday, 215 on Friday, 220.7 in the previous week and 439.2 a month ago in the middle of the fourth wave of the pandemic.
According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), German health authorities reported 12,515 new infections and OR 46 deaths with Covid-19 in 24 hours, compared with 10,100 and 88 in the previous week, while the number of active cases was around 636,200. Is. ) of Virology, updated last night.
According to last Thursday’s weekly RKI report, the Omicron version had 17.5% of infections in the week of December 20 to 26 – with large regional differences – and Delta still had 82.3% of cases.
By the last day of the year, 74.2% of the population (61.7 million people) in Germany had been vaccinated, 71.2% (59.2 million) with a complete regimen, and 38.7% (32.2 million) had already received a booster dose. Was. ,
Thus, 21.5 million people – 25.8% of the population – remain illiterate, and four million (4.8%) are under the age of four, so belong to an age group for which they do not yet have an approved vaccine.
Speaking to the German newspaper Bild, the Minister of Health once again expressed his concern about non-vaccination, given the start of the fifth wave caused by micron, and the effectiveness of the first dose of the vaccine against this variant. underlined.
According to Karl Lauterbach, “many illiterate people feel that, in any case, they have already missed the train”, but “this is not so”, because “the risk of dying after the first dose of vaccine significantly reduces 14 days”.
“I appeal to all: get vaccinated. With an increase in the first dose administered, we can effectively reduce the number of coronavirus deaths in the wave caused by Omicron”, he said.
The government official also appealed to the population to continue wearing masks, emphasizing that with Micron, this means of protection is even more effective, as the viral load of infected people is thus lower than that of others. Is.
