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In the deliberations on possible loosening, the consequences of mutations in the coronavirus are currently being hotly debated - Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), but also Hamburg's Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) repeatedly point out that it must first be seen how the infection process develops developed new influences.

So far, however, it can be said for the Hanseatic city that the mutants have not spread much.

In any case, the number of detected infections with the British virus mutation is lower than assumed.

A spokesman for the social welfare agency said that if one had assumed twelve cases so far, there are now only seven.

Whole genome sequencing showed that only the seven out of 21 corona cases identified at Airbus could actually be assigned to the British variant B.1.1.7.

The other five corona cases of return travelers, originally assigned to the British variant, have not been confirmed.

Thus, according to the information, there has so far been a case with the South African mutation B.1.135 and another variant with the designation B.1.258 in addition to the seven cases with the British Corona variant.

The Brazilian variant B.1.1.28 has not yet been detected in Hamburg.

Clarification is still pending in a good twenty cases.

The conclusion: "Overall, the occurrence of forms of mutation of the corona virus has so far not played a significant role according to the currently available knowledge," said the spokesman.

So what should future decisions be based on?

In the NDR podcast "Coronavirus update", virologist Sandra Ciesek advocates not just looking at the incidence.

This value indicates how many confirmed new infections there were per 100,000 inhabitants in the past seven days.

So far, a value below 50 was considered a benchmark for possible easing.

“But is the incidence really effective on its own?” Asked Ciesek.

“It is just as important to look at the R value: So how many people are infected by an infected person.” With a value above one, one must assume that infections will rise again as soon as more contacts are allowed.

If it is below one, one can assume “that a loosening would not have such a negative effect.” In Hamburg this R value is 0.85.

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But the British variant of the coronavirus also represents an additional factor of uncertainty for Ciesek. Ciesek explained that the B117 mutation is more contagious.

The R-value increases with increasing distribution.

At the same time, however, the number of infections with the wild type is falling.

"That's why it is currently very difficult to decide to what extent to relax and which areas to relax."