Lauterbach speaks of a "critical corona situation" before "Freedom Day" – a worried look at four scenarios

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach and RKI boss Lothar Wieler provided information on the current corona situation on Friday. Germany is currently in a “critical” situation.

Update from March 11, 10:20 a.m .: RKI boss Lothar Wieler also has his say at the press conference. Wieler makes it clear that the number of infected people is increasing sharply again. According to the RKI, the number of patients who are dependent on treatment in a clinic is also increasing. Likewise the number of patients who would suffer long-term consequences after corona disease. A “significant proportion of adults” are affected by Long-Covid. It is still unclear how many of them would be restricted by this in the long term.

Update from March 11, 10:05 a.m .: “It cannot satisfy us. We are in a situation that I would describe as critical,” explained Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach right at the beginning of the press conference. Lauterbach explains that the incidence and the number of infections in Germany are increasing sharply. 200 to 250 people would currently die every day from the consequences of corona disease. The perspective would allow the assumption that due to the high number of infections in the next few weeks, the number of deaths could increase again.

The mood in Germany therefore reflects a different picture. There is an atmosphere of freedom. As Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach explains, the omicron variant is still dangerous for those who have not been vaccinated. “We will be in exactly the same situation in the fall as we are now,” Lauterbach continued. As the Federal Minister of Health explains, it is important for the coming winter to introduce general vaccination. Vaccination protects against a severe course. For the coming winter one would have to be prepared for several scenarios. In this way, omicron could also be the dominant variant in the future, but it was also possible that the omicron mutation would become more dangerous. A possible return of the Delta variant must also be kept in mind. According to Lauterbach, the fourth scenario is pure combinations.

Relaxation, but numbers are skyrocketing: Corona-PK with Lauterbach and Wieler

Berlin – The number of infections* is skyrocketing. From March 20th, the federal government still wants to abolish almost all corona measures. Does that actually match? Is Germany loosening too early? The fifth corona wave is ebbing away, it was said a week ago. Now the sixth is apparently building up with Omikron BA.2*. Around 200 people die every day with or from Corona. But Sars-CoV-2 has apparently lost its terror for many.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and RKI boss Wieler scheduled a press conference in Berlin on Friday (March 11). Also there is Dr. Jördis Frommhold, chief physician at the Median Clinic in Heiligendamm. We will report on the press conference from 10 a.m. in the live ticker.

In addition to the traditional Lauterbach-Wieler line-up, this time Dr. Jördis Frommhold there. dr Jördis Frommhold is considered the expert on Long Covid in Germany. The chief physician in pneumology recognized early on that people with corona suffer more often from long-term consequences. Frommhold treated the first Covid patients in her clinic who were considered to have recovered but still suffered from symptoms.

Post Covid and Long Covid: what does it mean?

A distinction must be made between “Post Covid” and “Long Covid”, the doctor explained in an NDR interview. Post Covid or the so-called Post-Covid Syndrome (PCS) mainly affects Covid patients with a severe course who had to be treated in the intensive care unit.

Long Covid describes symptoms that often occur in younger patients four weeks or two months later after a mild infection, explains expert Frommhold in the NDR. More women than men are affected. The complaints are varied here.

A comprehensive analysis published in the specialist journal The Lancet in August 2021 listed over 200 symptoms. These include headaches, extreme tiredness (fatigue), difficulty finding words, difficulty concentrating or loss of smell and taste, shortness of breath and muscle weakness.

In some cases, patients would have to completely change their lives. The patients are often young, you wouldn’t see the disease in them. Especially young, capable long-Covid patients have to struggle with the acceptance of their disease, reports Dr. Jördis Frommhold in the NDR interview.

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Who is affected by long-term effects of Covid-19?

Various studies are being carried out internationally to better understand possible long-term consequences after an infection with the corona virus or a Covid 19 disease, can be read on the website of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Many questions are still open: It is not yet possible to estimate how often long-term consequences would occur, how well they can be treated.

“In particular, too little is known about the long-term health consequences of children and adolescents,” says the RKI. The Berlin Institute refers to the result of a recently published meta-study.

The University Hospital Essen presented a new study on long-term consequences after acute Covid disease. Ten to 15 percent of all acute patients suffer from Long Covid, said the head of neurology, Christoph Kleinschnitz, MDR-Aktuell. 60 percent complained of pathological tiredness, concentration and memory disorders as well as depressive moods were also found. Organically, the patients often lack nothing. According to Kleinschnitz, long-Covid symptoms usually have psychological and psychosomatic reasons. The study is based on data from 500 patients who presented to the Long Covid Outpatient Clinic.

Bavarian researchers are working on an unusual method to improve diagnosis and therapy for long-Covid patients: The Erlangen research team relies on AI – artificial intelligence. (ml) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA