Due to an estimated increase in corona cases in autumn and winter, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is urging to take preventive measures in various areas. In this way, the RKI writes in a strategy paper published on Thursday that addresses various scenarios that should keep severe disease progression, deaths and the burden on the health care system low "and population-related measures can be minimized." Recommendations for action are a “successful vaccination campaign”, “classic infection protection measures by the health authorities” and the targeted use of measures.
According to the paper, the population should be informed "in good time that there could be a heavy burden on the health system again in winter" and possibly a regional or local overload, for example with the so-called ECMO capacity (special machines for patients with severe lung failure) . The RKI emphasizes: "The idea of achieving herd immunity in the sense of eliminating or even eradicating the virus" - that is, largely pushing back or eradicating it - is not realistic.
The RKI has long been in favor of maintaining the basic rules against corona such as distance, hygiene, mask, ventilation and the corona warning app. The paper states that the number of "infectious contacts" should be further reduced through organizational measures such as the possibility of mobile working and participant restrictions for events. For the care sector, hospitals and schools, for example, the RKI provides further information.
A British study has meanwhile confirmed that the vaccines from BioNTech / Pfizer and AstraZeneca are highly effective against the delta variant of the coronavirus. According to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from BioNTech / Pfizer or AstraZeneca are almost as effective against the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus as against the previously dominant alpha variant. Accordingly, two vaccinations with BioNTech / Pfizer are 88 percent effective in preventing symptomatic illness from the Delta variant, compared with 93.7 percent against the Alpha variant. The double vaccination with AstraZeneca protects 67 percent effectively against the Delta variant, compared with 74.5 percent against the Alpha variant.
The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach estimates the risk of the delta variant of the coronavirus to be significantly higher than previously assumed. It is not only more contagious, but also leads to more deaths, he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. This was shown by the latest evaluations from Canada. “The original hope that the Delta variant would be more contagious but that it would be easier has unfortunately not been confirmed. Not even in the data from England. ”This makes him“ very worried about the autumn ”. A slight course in children is also not to be expected. "Although we do not have to expect any or only very few deaths there, there will be many severe courses, the end result of which can be Long Covid for children."