The wave of corona infections expected for the winter has so far been weaker than feared – and serious illnesses are less common. This prompted some federal states to withdraw protective measures. Experts are skeptical about the new patchwork quilt.
Schwerin (dpa/mv) – The Federal Government’s Corona Expert Council currently considers the federal guidelines for combating the pandemic to be appropriate, but is critical of the different implementation of the measures under state sovereignty. “It is obvious that we would basically welcome if there were more or less uniform federal regulations. Because it is difficult to convey that we have different rules when moving from one federal state to another,” said Council Chairman Prof. Heyo Kroemer on Monday in Schwerin. For example, Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt have abolished the obligation to wear masks in local transport, and in some countries there is no longer an obligation to isolate people with Covid 19 diseases.
At the invitation of the Ludwigslust district administrator Stefan Sternberg (SPD), who is a member of the expert council as a representative of the municipal level, the committee had moved its regular consultation to the state capital of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Sternberg also expressed doubts about the early easing. “These are political decisions that could have been made differently given the current burden on many clinics from a large number of other diseases,” he said.
Kroemer, CEO of the Berlin Charité, also referred to the often tense personnel situation, especially in hospitals, daycare centers and schools due to illness-related absences. “At the moment we have the problem that we have many other viral diseases at the same time that we are very concerned about. But Corona still plays a considerable role,” said Kroemer. However, the proportion of serious cases of illness has decreased noticeably compared to the previous waves of infection. He cited the comprehensive vaccinations and previous corona infections as reasons for this.
The Corona Expert Council was appointed a year ago. On behalf of the federal and state governments, he regularly develops situation assessments that are incorporated into political decisions. In the summer, the federal government had significantly reduced the corona protection regulations, but kept to the mask requirement in long-distance transport and when visiting the doctor. The federal states can make regulations that go beyond this. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Minister of Health, Stefanie Drese (SPD), had declared in the state parliament last week that the state would continue to use the current level of corona protection measures until further notice.
According to the information, the number of registered new corona infections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and nationwide has been increasing again slightly since the end of November after an interim decrease. According to calculations by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the nationwide seven-day incidence is over 200 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants. However, experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – mainly because by far not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics.
