There is good news about the corona pandemic in Hesse on Wednesday.

So far, no further suspected cases of the new Omikron virus variant have become known in the centrally located state.

Health Minister Kai Klose (The Greens) informed the FAZ on request.

The Frankfurt virologist Sandra Ciesek confirmed this.

She and her team evaluate genetic samples from travelers and relatives, with a particular focus on returnees from southern Africa.

The omicron variant was first identified there.

Thorsten Winter

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

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The virologist from the Frankfurt University Clinic also provided an explanation for the respite: passengers are now only allowed to board a machine if they had a negative PCR test and could show them.

In this respect, the new requirements take effect, as she emphasized.

So far, according to Ciesek and Klose, seven suspected cases have become known.

The Frankfurt health department spoke of six on Tuesday, but the minister and the virologist confirmed the seven to the FAZ.

A suspected case had previously been confirmed.

The person in whom the sequencing confirmed the omicron variant was "symptom-free".

"Do not officially cancel elective interventions again"

In the dispute over a possible rejection of so-called elective interventions by the authorities, the medical director of the University Clinic, Gießen and Marburg, Werner Seeger, is behind the professional association of German surgeons. This concerns operations in cases in which the patient's health is not acutely threatened, which is why a suitable date can be set, i.e. an intervention can also be postponed. A look at the previous waves shows that during the second and third pandemic waves, the German clinics independently regulated this according to the incidence and urgency of the interventions. So it says with reference to a study.“On the other hand, the officially ordered rejection of elective interventions during the first wave led to an undifferentiated general decline in the number of cases in clinics.” However, not only Covid patients had to be given the best possible care, but also other sick people.

In the meantime, the people in Hesse still have to familiarize themselves with the new corona rules. Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) announced on Tuesday afternoon “drastic restrictions for unvaccinated people”. Unvaccinated people are allowed to meet a maximum of two households in public spaces. The government would like the same for private rooms. The 2-G rule will be extended to retail. The food trade is not affected by this. The option solutions in the hotel and catering industries were no longer available. On the way to the table, the mask is also necessary for those who have recovered and who have been vaccinated. Free testing will therefore no longer be possible.

The requirement that buses and trains should only be open to vaccinated, convalescent and tested people causes controversy.

The Verdi union and the EVG railway and transport union in Hesse are calling for trained security personnel to carry out 3-G controls in local transport.

"Trade not a hotspot"

The trade association Hessen points out in a statement that the trade has proven over the past few months with a high degree of reliability that it is dealing responsibly with the situation and is not a driver of infection.

This has been confirmed by several recognized studies.

The introduced hygiene concepts, which are consistently implemented in retail, have proven themselves and are socially accepted.

During the entire course of the corona pandemic, retail was not a hotspot.