Omicron statement from the German Minister of Health

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach announced that, based on the experience in the UK, Germany is facing a massive and severe fifth wave of pandemics.

The new Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach, who made a statement on the subject in the city of Hannover during his visit to the state of Lower Saxony, also said that the fifth wave, in which the Omicron variant will be dominant, will be difficult.

Minister Lauterbach, who is also a professor of medicine, stated that, looking at the information given by his colleagues in the UK, they concluded that the new pandemic wave, which Omicron will dominate, will be beyond anything seen so far.

“In short, we have to prepare ourselves for a very challenging assignment in a way we have never seen before,” said Lauterbach.

Regarding the information that Omicron is mild in some countries, Lauterbach stated that this will not make a difference and stated that the mild course of the disease may keep deaths low in the first two to three weeks, but this gain will disappear in a short time due to the increase in the number of new cases.

The Minister from the Social Democratic Party emphasized that the expected Omicron-dominated fifth wave would be a difficult task for hospitals, intensive care units and the whole society, and therefore reiterated that we had to make efforts to suppress the wave. The minister also repeated his calls for reminder dose vaccinations.

THE FOURTH WAVE IS ALSO SLOW

The fourth corona wave, which is still in Germany, is heavy in some states in terms of the number of weekly cases and hospitalization rates. It is reported that intensive care patients are transferred to other regions, especially from states in the east of the country such as Saxony and Thuringia, where vaccination rates are low.

Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach, who visited a vaccination center in Hannover, also emphasized the importance of vaccination for children. He said all the data available so far points to vaccination as the best way to go.

A campaign for children between the ages of 5-11 started this week in Germany. Germany’s Permanent Vaccination Commission recommends that children with a disease be vaccinated.

NATIONAL PANDEMIC REMOVED ONE MONTH AGO

In Germany, where there is a federal system, the decisions taken by the central government are advisory; The main authority to fight the pandemic is in the states and local governments. The new three-party government, established after 16 years of Angela Merkel’s term, abolished the national pandemic a month ago, thus removing the legal basis for taking strict measures such as a full shutdown across the country.

The new coalition government, made up of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), has made two amendments to the new anti-infection law, which was subsequently approved last month, trying to create the legal framework for drastic measures that dire states could take. The full closure measures taken before in Germany were returned from the higher competent courts.

VACCINATION OBLIGATION FOR SOME SECTORS

In Germany, it has been decided that vaccination is mandatory for those working in areas where vulnerable groups are present, especially in nursing homes for the elderly and the disabled, clinics, and doctors’ offices. In order to allow time for the employees in the sector to be vaccinated if they have not been vaccinated, and for the public to receive a reminder dose, the implementation is started in March.

The decision to require vaccination for those working in certain fields has also led to an increase in the demand for a general vaccination obligation. While protests and groups opposing the government’s measures to combat the pandemic and the necessity of vaccination, and increasingly radicalized according to intelligence, are growing, death threats against politicians and medical professionals are also increasing.