In view of a new coronavirus variant discovered in southern Africa, concern is growing in Germany. According to the responsible Max von Pettenkofer Institute, two cases of the new Omikron variant of the coronavirus have been detected in Munich. The two travelers arrived on November 24 with a flight from South Africa, said Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) on Saturday. According to the director of the institute and virologist Oliver Keppler, genome sequencing is still pending. But it is “proven beyond doubt that it is this variant”.
The people have been in domestic isolation since November 25th after a positive PCR test. After reporting on the new variant, the two people had proactively initiated an examination of the variant themselves.
On Saturday morning, Hesse’s Minister of Social Affairs Kai Klose (Greens) announced a suspected Omikron case. In the case of a returnee from South Africa, several mutations typical for this variant were found. “So there is a high level of suspicion that the person was isolated at home,” tweeted Klose.
According to the Ministry in Wiesbaden, the result of the complete sequencing can be expected in the next few days. The fully vaccinated person entered Frankfurt Airport on November 21 and developed symptoms over the course of the week.
The omicron variant (B.1.1.529), which was first detected in southern Africa, was classified as “worrying” by the World Health Organization (WHO). The EU health authority ECDC speaks of serious concerns that the variant could significantly reduce the effectiveness of the corona vaccines and increase the risk of reinfections. The exact effects of the variant have not yet been determined.
Because of the variant, the federal government is classifying South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi and Lesotho as virus variant areas from Sunday, midnight, as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced on Friday evening. Airlines are essentially only allowed to carry German citizens or people living in Germany from there to Germany. A two-week quarantine obligation applies to those entering the country – including those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered.
A special case was represented by passengers who came to Germany on Friday evening in a Lufthansa plane that landed in Munich from Cape Town in South Africa – the last scheduled flight to land in Munich before the new regulations came into force. Bavaria’s Ministry of Health ordered strict test and quarantine regulations for passengers. According to a ministry spokeswoman, two passengers tested positive for Corona on Sunday. Both are isolated. It was initially unclear which variant of the virus it was.
The German Lufthansa is maintaining the flight connections to South Africa for the time being, as a spokesman confirmed on request. “The flight plan is maintained, the flights take place” – of course, the applicable requirements would be complied with.
The health policy spokeswoman for the FDP parliamentary group, Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus, supported the decision of the executive government to restrict air traffic to South Africa. “With a view to the reports on virus variant B.1.1.529, we take the situation very seriously and consult with experts. At the moment we know little about the variant. It is therefore right to restrict air traffic to South Africa, ”she said at the request of the German Press Agency.
Two confirmed Omicron cases in Hong Kong appear to have a rapidly increasing viral load. The PCR tests of the two men, who were negative a few days earlier, had a Ct value of 18 and 19. “That is incredibly high, especially when you consider that the two were still negative in the last PCR tests” , writes the epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding. It looks as if the variant could actually escape vaccination protection, Feigl-Ding continued. Two Omicron cases were also known in Great Britain on Sunday.
The developer of the Astrazeneca vaccine, however, does not expect a dramatic new beginning of the pandemic by Omikron. “It is very unlikely that there will be a restart of the pandemic like last year in a vaccinated population,” Oxford University immunologist Andrew Pollard told the BBC on Saturday. You have to wait a few weeks to get certain results, but there is reason to hope that the vaccines against serious diseases will continue to work.
Vaccination remains the best option even with Omikron
Vaccination remains the best option even with Omikron, as experts emphasize. “All people who get vaccinated do not start from scratch when they are infected with a new variant,” emphasized Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), in Berlin on Saturday. In any case, you already have a certain level of vaccination protection, which is crucial to know.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, warned of the emergence of even more dangerous variants of the corona virus. “My great concern is that there could be a variant that is as infectious as Delta and as dangerous as Ebola,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. The new variant B.1.1.529 is a good example that the virus should not be given a chance to mutate. To prevent further variants, it will be necessary to vaccinate the world for years to come, said Montgomery. (dpa)
Source From: Tagesspiegel
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