Restrictions imposed quickly to combat the Covid pandemic have a measurable effect, according to an expert commission in Germany as infections again
Restrictions imposed quickly to combat the Covid pandemic have a measurable effect, according to an expert commission in Germany as infections again threaten to spiral out of control.
Gto News runs this story by DW analysing the imposing of restrictions to contain the new raising number of infections in many parts of the world. All credit to DW.
A German expert panel gave good marks to measures imposed for containment of the Covid pandemic, aimed at stopping the spread of the disease at an early stage, reported DW.
The panel was commissioned by the federal government and its members included scientists specialized in medicine, law, ethics, economy, and public administration.
After months of evaluating the wide range of research that has been published in the two and a half years since the outbreak of the pandemic, they found the wearing of medical masks (FFP2/N95) have been an especially effective measure to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
“Since the transmission of the coronavirus is incomparably stronger indoors than outdoors, a mask requirement should be limited to indoor areas and places with a higher risk of infection,” reported DW.
Closing of schools
The report said lockdowns made sense, especially at the beginning of a pandemic, to reduce transmission as much as possible. “When only a few people are infected, lockdown measures have a much stronger effect. The longer a lockdown lasts, fewer people will be willing to comply with restrictions and this will ‘reduce the effectiveness’”, reported DW.
School closures have been a particularly controversial measure over the past two years. The panel mentioned the need for more studies on the detrimental effect of school closures and other shutdowns on mental health, suggesting measures to mitigate the long-term negative effect.
The experts urged the development of a comprehensive public health system, bundling data, and developing a strategy for nationwide protective measures that would be applicable in every epidemic situation, reported DW.
Emergency services
With infections rising, there is already a shortage of staff in many areas of public service. It ‘s affecting the postal services, public transport, air traffic and even emergency services, reported DW. “For months we’ve been warning about the collapse in emergency rescue services, and now it’s here,” says ambulance driver Tobias Thiele who works in the western Rhine-Main region near Germany’s largest airport. Covid infection numbers are also on the rise among emergency room and rescue staff.
Besides after each deployment, an ambulance must be cleaned and disinfected, which takes up valuable time and labor. Only after this intensive cleaning can the paramedics go out again. After almost two and a half years of fighting the pandemic, rescue workers are exhausted, reported DW.
Numbers unregistered
“The infection rates are exploding,” pandemic modeler and complexity researcher Dirk Brockmann of Berlin’s Humboldt University told DW, although many of them no longer even appear in the statistics. “The number of unreported cases is high,” Brockmann said because many Covid sufferers no longer bother to get a PCR test and simply stay at home until they feel better. Germany is flying blind.
This week, the German Government also abolished the free Covid rapid tests. They now cost €3 ($3.15). That is expected to discourage even more people from getting tested, reported DW.
The basis for new restrictive measures would be a new infection protection law. But the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), the smallest member of Germany’s coalition government, is opposed to legislation restricting personal freedoms.
There is not much time for new legislation: Next week, the German parliament will convene for the last time before its summer break. And when they return, infections and hospital admissions will be rising again in the fall, as more people meet indoors again during the cold season, as reported by DW.
