The people in Hesse still have to get used to the new corona rules, they have been in force since Thursday.

Meanwhile, news about a new virus variant from South Africa is causing new uncertainty.

For the time being, Lufthansa wants to continue flying to the Cape as planned.

The state government's new plans for everyday life include, for example, the 2-G obligation in restaurants, 2-Gplus in bars and clubs and more tests for children and young people in schools.

The gastronomy press "unnecessary discussions" with guests about the political requirements for protection against the corona virus, as the trade association says.

Thorsten Winter

Business editor and internet coordinator in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Meanwhile, the relevant guidelines are increasing.

The so-called hospitalization incidence is at a very high level.

It reflects the number of Covid patients admitted to clinics within a week.

There are more corona patients in intensive care and normal beds than ever before in these weeks.

The seven-day incidence also continues to climb.

A Hessian district even jumped the incidence of 500, while the vaccination rate is still barely making any headway.

110 more intensive care patients than at the end of October

According to the Ministry of Social Affairs, 275 Covid patients were last in intensive care units after 273 the day before and 167 four weeks ago.

Regardless of this, local capacity limits have been reached for some time, for example at the University Clinic in Giessen.

And that doesn't just apply to intensive care beds for Covid patients, for whom the threshold is 200.

818 beds in Hessian normal wards are occupied by people who have been proven to have been infected with the coronavirus or who are suspected of being infected, 17 fewer than the day before.

Four weeks ago there was talk of 421 normal beds occupied by Covid patients.

The acute care is no longer guaranteed, it was said from the Frankfurt University Hospital recently.

Hospitalization incidence is increasing

There is a simple reason why the Ministry of Social Affairs regularly uses data from the previous day when it comes to bed occupancy: it only receives the new figures after its update has been published.

The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine Divi speaks of 259 corona patients in intensive care beds, 118 of which are invasively ventilated.

However, the Divi regularly reports lower data than the country for this guideline value;

This is justified with different counting methods.

According to the ministry, the second benchmark, the so-called hospitalization incidence, is 4.6 and is stagnating.

"Pandemic of the Unvaccinated"

55.7 percent of the patients treated with Covid-19 in intensive care units in Hessen are only partially vaccinated or not vaccinated at all and confirm the phrase "pandemic of the unvaccinated". 37.7 percent are fully vaccinated. This value tends to increase. This has increasingly to do with the diminishing effectiveness of the vaccine after a few months and in many cases also with the fact that people have not been able to develop adequate immune protection because of other diseases or because their immune system is suppressed by medication. The vaccination status is unknown in 6.6 percent. A comparatively high value in view of the numbers from the previous weeks

The vaccination rate is still barely noticeably increasing.

67.3 percent of the Hessian population are vaccinated, for people over the age of twelve it is 75.9 percent, two tenths of a percentage point more than the day before, as the state reports.

Experts believe that 85 to 90 percent are necessary to break the fourth wave.

As the ministry further reports, the Hessian health authorities recorded 3238 new infections overnight after positive PCR tests

after 2549 a week ago and 1415 four weeks ago.

There were also 14 deaths related to Covid-19.

The seven-day incidence rose to a good 268 from 112 four weeks ago.

The Odenwald has the most cases of less than 100,000 inhabitants registered within a week, with 503 after 408 the day before, before Bergstrasse with 384 and Frankfurt with 368.