"First falling numbers" visible: Spahn exudes confidence

"First falling numbers" visible
Spahn exudes confidence

There is a glimmer of hope: The corona lockdown seems to be working. The number of new infections is falling, the clinics are relieved somewhat, the vaccination campaign is ongoing. Health Minister Spahn is optimistic.

Health Minister Jens Spahn has described the currently declining number of new corona infections as "encouraging". It is "a good signal that we are seeing the first falling numbers, especially by the way in the intensive care units," he said on RTL and ntv. There, the decline from the previous high of Covid 19 intensive care patients is currently estimated to be 10 to 15 percent. However, the health minister added: "That is not enough."

In his opinion, the danger posed by the virus mutations that have been detected so far is "so far very manageable," continued Spahn. "As a rule, this also has to do with travel and contact events, for example to Great Britain. The contact restrictions are all the more important for the reason that we are also making it as difficult as possible for this mutated virus, which seems to be transmitted much, much faster, To gain a foothold in Germany. " Spahn also referred to findings from backward sequencing, in which samples from December were tested again.

The attempt by Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to give people who have already been vaccinated more rights was rejected by Spahn: "I think it is good and important that we lead this debate. We just have to lead it in the correct order and according to the findings, which we have." It is not yet known whether a vaccination will also prevent infectiousness, "that is, whether I really cannot infect anyone else. Only when we know that can we have all other discussions."

With regard to the further course of the infection process, the Christian Democrat was optimistic and indicated that the pandemic could be controlled in the summer: "If we can now manage to significantly reduce the number of infections in the next two to three weeks, then I am very optimistic, that we can then keep it reduced for a significantly longer period of time, maybe even into summer. " If it is also possible to keep the number of infections low in parallel with vaccinations, "then there is actually a chance that we will have made our way out of the pandemic in summer."

The complete interview shows the RTL Aktuell special "Corona crisis – how hard will the lockdown be?"

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