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Scholz last Thursday in Brussels at the meeting of the heads of state and government of the European Union
Photo: Zhao Dingzhe / dpa
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been infected with the coronavirus again. On X, formerly Twitter, the SPD politician wrote: "This is clearly not a surprise that I am happy about. My current Covid-19 tests show two lines." He continues: "If I have few symptoms, I'm counting on a mild course and I'm only working from my desk for the time being."
The Chancellor's appointments were actually to receive the thesis paper "Initiative for Cultural Integration" on Monday afternoon and to receive the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Tuesday, followed by chairing the meeting of the Federal Cabinet on Wednesday.
Scholz had already tested positive for the coronavirus in September 2022. At that time, he had also suffered only mild symptoms and had gone into isolation in his apartment in the Chancellery.
Recently, corona infections have increased again in Germany
In Germany, more people had recently been infected with acute respiratory diseases, colds and the flu. Currently, there are more corona infections than there have been in a year and a half. In total, more than 196,008 Covid-19 cases have been reported since October. In Week 49 alone, there were 26,847 new infections. This is the result of the latest weekly report of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
Most recently, the Eris (EG.5) and Pirola (BA.2.86) variants dominated. Recently, a new variant in particular has been responsible for the many new infections: The pirola subtype JN.1 has already caused high incidences in the USA. According to the RKI, 29 percent of all new infections were caused by this variant. It displaces Eris and Pirola, which each account for less than 20 percent of all infections. It is assumed that all approved vaccines provide sufficient protection against infection with JN.1.
aeh/aka/AFP