Saxony-Anhalt: Vaccination teams in Saxony-Anhalt by the end of the year: Incidence is increasing

The number of new corona infections is increasing again.

Saxony-Anhalt: Vaccination teams in Saxony-Anhalt by the end of the year: Incidence is increasing

The number of new corona infections is increasing again. How are the Corona protection measures going? Health Minister Grimm-Benne is in favor of continuing to act cautiously in winter.

Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - In Saxony-Anhalt, all vaccination centers and the mobile vaccination teams docked to them should stop working by the end of the year. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Social Affairs announced on Thursday in Magdeburg that the vaccination offers were part of the standard care provided by resident doctors. The background is the expiring proportionate funding by the federal government. Social Minister Petra Grimm-Benne has therefore moved away from a previously announced continuation of vaccination offers until February. The vaccination teams are out and about in care facilities and shopping centers, for example, to offer corona vaccinations.

The SPD politician is also in favor of continuing to rely on medical mouth and nose protection in certain areas. "We should still maintain the mask requirement and be careful overall in winter. Last January we had extremely high infection rates." The mask also helps with a possible flu outbreak, according to the Minister of Health. “We are already seeing a significant increase in the number of infections here.”

The corona incidence in Saxony-Anhalt had increased significantly again within a week on Thursday. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave a value of 242.7 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and seven days. A week earlier it was 194.5, two weeks ago 193.1. However, this information only provides a very incomplete picture of the number of infections. Experts have 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 have a PCR test done. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics.

There is still room for improvement in the vaccination rate in Saxony-Anhalt. According to data from the RKI, 74.1 percent of the residents are considered to be basic immunized. 58.3 percent of people have the first booster vaccination. In the other eastern federal states, the rates are in a similar range.

The current Corona Ordinance in Saxony-Anhalt runs until December 7th. Accordingly, medical mouth and nose protection must be worn in local public transport. The state government wants to discuss how to proceed in the cabinet after the next meetings of the Conference of Health Ministers and the Conference of Transport Ministers on December 6th. The results of the consultations on the obligation to isolate should also be included.

While members of the state parliament from the CDU and FDP and Minister of Infrastructure Lydia Hüskens (FDP) had recently advocated phasing out corona protection measures, Grimm-Benne advocates a more cautious course. "Overall, we only have very few measures left." The question of when exactly to go into the endemic situation and let the regulation expire still has to be discussed.