The new coronavirus variant BA.5 is spreading. Bavaria's Minister of Health therefore warns of increasing numbers of infections. The federal government had poorly prepared Germany for this.
Munich (dpa/lby) - Bavaria's Health Minister Klaus Holetschek has warned of the increasing number of infections caused by the new omicron subvariant BA.5. After waves in other countries, it is to be expected that BA.5 will soon become dominant in Germany, said the CSU politician on Saturday in Munich. "The infection pressure could increase again."
However, he sees no reason to tighten the corona regulations. BA.5 does not appear to cause more severe disease than previous types of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Nevertheless, this is no reason to be careless. New virus variants that could be more contagious and possibly more dangerous can be expected in autumn.
In this context, he criticized the federal government's corona policy. The Infection Protection Act has not yet been adapted to possible developments. "The Berlin traffic lights, which were at odds over the Corona issue, are now in danger of missing the train to make the necessary changes in time for the summer break of the Bundestag," explained Holetschek. The federal government must enable the states to react “quickly and appropriately” to new waves of infection.
According to figures from the Robert Koch Institute on Friday morning, the corona incidence in Bavaria has risen to 308.5. This continues the upward trend. On May 30, the RKI had reported a value of 190. The last time the incidence was over 300 was on May 24th. However, the development of the past few weeks may be partially distorted by public holidays. Across Germany, the incidence rose to 318.7.
Experts have also been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI - mainly because not all infected people do a PCR test. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to a distortion of individual daily values.
