Merkel calls for vaccination during the week of action – but the Greens are shooting against Spahn's plan

Is the corona situation in Germany easing? The nationwide incidence continues to decline on Sunday. But worries about a corona autumn are growing. The news ticker.

Braun: Vaccination offers close to the citizens even after the campaign week

Update from September 12, 9:11 p.m.: The special corona vaccination offers planned for the new week should also be continued afterwards. This was announced by Chancellery Minister Helge Braun on Sunday evening in the ZDF program “Berlin direkt”. “It doesn’t end with vaccination week, it will continue for the next few weeks,” he said. The direct and citizen-oriented vaccination offers as part of the action week should help to prevent a fourth wave of the pandemic in winter. “If we don’t do anything, it’ll be pretty sure,” said Braun. The result is that those who have been vaccinated have to stand back with their operations because unvaccinated people are in the hospitals.

Merkel calls on citizens to vaccinate: “It has never been easier”

Update from September 12, 5:01 p.m.: Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has called on citizens in Germany to start a nationwide vaccination campaign week to use the offers for corona vaccinations. “Getting a vaccination has never been easier. It has never been faster, ”she said before the start of the campaign this Monday. Green parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt criticized on Sunday that it was not enough for Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) to declare one week to be an action week. “We now need a widespread information campaign, from now on every week has to become an action week,” she said.

The board of directors of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, praised Merkel for relying on arguments in the vaccination campaign. “With this, Angela Merkel is setting herself apart from the polemics of more and more countries.” This includes the abolition of continued wages in quarantine of unvaccinated people, explained Brysch to the German Press Agency in Berlin.

Merkel said in her video podcast that there will be vaccination offers from volunteer fire brigades, in the tram, on the edge of soccer fields and in mosques. Everyone can then be vaccinated without an appointment and free of charge. “I therefore ask you: Protect yourself and others. Get vaccinated, ”the Chancellor appeals. The vaccination week lasts until September 19th. Unfortunately, the number of new infections is increasing again, warned the Chancellor.

RKI boss Wieler warns of lessons from the pandemic – “mercilessly got to know deficits”

Update from September 12, 1:34 p.m .: The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) sees a clear need for improvement in Germany in dealing with infectious diseases such as Corona. “There are many lessons to be learned,” said RKI boss Lothar Wieler at the start of the annual conference of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM) on Sunday in Berlin. In the current pandemic, one “got to know merciless deficits”.

In Germany, for example, there is a shortcoming in the preparation of clinical studies, explained Wieler. Another topic that needs to be improved is data transparency. To create it is “a thick board”. In principle, data is often already there, but it is well hidden and not freely available.

Corona: More than 1,400 Covid patients are in an intensive care unit

Update from September 12, 12:34 p.m .: The beds in the intensive care units are filling up with Covid patients. The number is increasing unchecked. 1,441 corona patients currently require intensive care, of which 756 are artificially ventilated. This is evident from the data in the DIVI intensive care register from Sunday. For comparison: A year ago on September 12, 2020, 231 Covid patients were in an intensive care unit.

According to the DIVI intensive care register, 25.7 percent of corona patients are currently between 50 and 59 years old. 22.2 percent are between 60 and 69 years old. In the age group of 40 to 49 year olds it is 16.4 percent, in the age group of 70 to 79 years it is 14.9 percent, in the age group 30 to 30 years it is 8 percent and in the age group 18 to 29 years 8 Percent. 17 Covid patients – 1.2 percent – are between 0 and 17 years old.

1G rule: Berliner Wirt only allows vaccinated people in

Update from September 12th, 10:29 am : Discussions about stricter rules for unvaccinated people are picking up speed in Germany. When it comes to Corona, a Berlin host is now playing it safe. He voluntarily introduces the 1G rule.

RKI confirms: Corona incidence is falling – vaccination rate is still significantly too low

First report from September 12, 2021

Berlin – According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI *), the 7-day incidence is currently 80.2 (previous day: 82.8; previous week: 83.1). In the past 24 hours, 7,345 new corona infections and eight deaths have been recorded. This comes from the data on the Covid-19 dashboard on Sunday morning. For comparison: a week ago on Sunday 10,453 positive corona tests were reported to the health authorities in Germany.

Bremen currently has the highest incidence at 114.4. Followed by Hesse (105.3) and North Rhine-Westphalia (110.8). In Saxony-Anhalt the value is lowest at 27.2.

Corona in Germany – Incidence in the federal states (as of September 12, 2021)

Corona: Six regions over the 200 limit

The infection rate in some regions continues to be very dynamic. The incidence is above the 200 mark in six urban districts: SK Neustadt ad Weinstraße (230.7), SK Wuppertal (218.3), SK Rosenheim (217.0), SK Salzgitter (216.6), LK Ahrweiler (213.4) and LK Berchtesgadener Land (205.0).

Corona: Incidence of hospitalization

The hospitalization incidence on Friday was 1.95. The RKI will publish a new value on Monday. The hospitalization incidence stands for the number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days. A limit value – from when the situation can be viewed critically – is not provided. The previous high was around 15.5 around Christmas time.

Corona: The current RKI case numbers from Sunday (September 12, 2021)

Corona: vaccination rate too low in Germany

Vaccination in Germany is currently only progressing slowly. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, 62 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. 66.4 percent received at least one dose of vaccine. RKI boss Lothar Wieler warns of a “brilliant course” of the autumn wave *. The federal and state governments therefore want to make many low-threshold vaccination offers from next week.

Expert estimates show that with every percentage point by which the vaccination rate increases, the situation can relax.

The Cologne intensive care doctor Christian Karagiannidis fears full intensive care units in the next few months without increasing vaccination rates. “For intensive care medicine, the following applies: If we do not significantly increase the vaccination rate again, then we will run into a very difficult autumn,” says the scientific director of the intensive care register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Divi) of the German Press Agency .

It is already evident that the vaccination rate is still too low, especially for people up to 60. “We have the problem that the average age in the intensive care units is falling very significantly and many patients are under 60 years old,” says Karagiannidis.

The RKI estimates what effects an increase in the vaccination rate in the group of 12- to 59-year-olds could have on the occupancy of intensive care beds in the coming months. With a vaccination rate of 65 percent, a very strong increase in the 7-day incidence to up to 400 and up to about 6,000 Covid-19 patients in intensive care treatment at the same time would be expected. For a vaccination rate of 75 percent, the RKI model shows far lower incidences below 150 and only 2000 occupied intensive care beds.

With both an 85 percent and a 95 percent vaccination quota in this group, the incidence no longer rises above 100 or 50 and the intensive occupancy no longer exceeds 1000 beds. According to the RKI, many factors, such as the dominance of the highly infectious Delta variant and the response of people to increasing numbers of infections, are decisive in the estimates of the influence of the vaccination rate.

According to a modeling by Karagiannidis together with Andreas Schuppert from RWTH Aachen University and Steffen Weber-Carstens from Charité Berlin, from an incidence of around 200 it can be assumed that the intensive care units will be exposed to more than 3000 intensive care patients at the same time.

With significantly increased vaccination rates – for 18 to 59 year olds to around 80 and for over 60 year olds to 90 percent – this burden would only arise at an incidence of around 400, as Karagiannidis calculates. You would then have a little more “time and play”, but he expressly warned against letting the incidences soar in an uncontrolled manner. “The bottom line is that the incidence must not rise steadily. And that’s a huge problem that I see, ”he emphasizes.

Various factors such as the distribution of new infections in the various age groups should be taken into account in all forecasts, estimates and calculations – and they make them so difficult, Karagiannidis points out. Because the mortality rate in younger intensive care patients is often not that high, it could also be that, once they are there, they stay longer in the intensive care units. In addition, there is a lack of broad data on recovered people who did not notice the infection but went through it and are now immune. This unreported figure is unclear, but it plays a prominent role.

Corona: At least five million more vaccinations needed

Health Minister Spahn said on Wednesday that the targeted vaccination rate for a safe autumn and winter was over 90 percent for over 60-year-olds and 75 percent for 12 to 59-year-olds. At least five million vaccinations are necessary for this.

But would a total vaccination quota of over 70 percent – instead of the current only a few percentage points over 60 – change anything? Modeling co-author Schuppert is convinced: “Ten percent do indeed make a difference.” With older people, higher vaccination rates can significantly reduce the risk of high intensive care units.

For adolescents, the effect on the intensive care units is probably rather minor – after all, they rarely have a correspondingly severe course. An increasing vaccination rate for them is clearly reflected in the speed at which the virus spreads, explains the expert.

Delta variant – vaccination rate is particularly important

Increasing the vaccination rate is important for adults of all age groups, emphasizes Schuppert – especially for those aged 35 and over, because the delta variant * pushes the disease risk to younger age groups. The fact that it is now often younger people who are in intensive care units, where the vaccination rate is lower than for those over 60, is clear evidence that the vaccinations are having a great effect.

Even supposedly small increases in the quota could in fact cause large differences, Karagiannidis also emphasizes. Using the example of the population between 18 and 60 years of age, he explains: If 10 or 20 percent more people in this group were to be vaccinated, that would be about four or eight million more people who would be protected by the vaccination – “in the end a lot, much fewer intensive care patients ”.

The Braunschweig epidemiologist Berit Lange from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research explains that it is not only the question of what level the vaccination rate could realistically reach. In practice, it is important who specifically can still be vaccinated and how these people can be reached.

Lange assumes that the as yet unvaccinated third of the population will have to spend far greater resources than before. “People are not all anti-vaccinations, but many are simply not yet fully convinced, have questions and are unsure.” It is important to know exactly in which districts or population groups the vaccination rate is still (too) low – and how these people could be persuaded.

According to the expert, if one could theoretically manage to vaccinate those of the people who have not yet been vaccinated who would have the most contacts due to their occupation or household situation, as well as those with an increased risk of a severe course, one would be able to prevent even more infections. The next few weeks will be about getting these people to vaccinate.

“But it is very difficult to design a vaccination campaign in such a way that these people in particular can actually be reached,” says Lange. And in principle, of course, the goal is to vaccinate everyone as possible – both for self-protection and for protection of others. (ml, dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA