Omikron rolls towards schools-Lauterbach appeals: FFP2 masks!

BERLIN.One of Omikron's peculiarities is that the cities are initially violently affected.This was shown in London and Copenhagen as well as in Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin.Vaccination rates hardly play a role for the spread - but elsewhere.And the schools should also become decisive in the upcoming infection.The Federal Minister of Health advises pupils and teachers about FFP2 masks.

Corona numbers are also increasing significantly in Germany, but compared to the already high omikron walls of neighboring countries, the wave of infection is building up later-why?Protective measures are likely to play the biggest role, as the immunologist Carsten Watzl said.The Delta wave was just broken, but the measures that intensified for it were still valid and further effective when Omikron came in November.

In the very rapid extremely affected countries of the UK and Denmark, on the other hand, there were hardly any restrictions at the time that the behavior of the population was closest to normal, added modelers Dirk Brockmann from the Humboldt University Berlin.

In general, people's reaction play a very important role, said Christine Falk from the Hannover Medical School.The population in this country obviously quickly adapted their behavior to Omikron and behaved more carefully - and thus contributed to the previously absence of the wall."The actions of each individual flows into the overall situation," emphasized the President of the German Society for Immunology (DGFI).

"The mask looks very efficient in the omikron variant and would offer great security, especially in schools"

According to the epidemiologist Hajo Zeeb, at least at the beginning it was probably also important how many cases were introduced - after all, they formed the basis from which the wave builds up.In the meantime, such entries no longer played a role in the infection, emphasized Brockmann.«There is a distorted picture of the role of mobility when the virus is already distributed everywhere.»The designation of high -risk areas no longer makes sense.«The whole world is a high risk area.»

According to the experts, hardly any effect especially on infection dynamics also has the vaccination rate.The basic immunization is almost not at all affected at Omikron, even the booster also very little on this aspect, said Brockmann in conversation.“Characteristic of Omikron is that it is spreading as if the population was not vaccinated.2G is like zero g.“That is why it is not surprising that the number of cases also shoot up in areas with a comparatively high vaccination rate such as Bremen.

The booster is particularly important for the risk of infection of the individual in the first time after the vaccination: the virologist Christian Drosten from the Berlin Charité recently referred to Danish studies of studies, which showed that the refresher vaccination has the risk of an omicron attachmentnoticeably lower.

With the high number of cases in Bremen, DGFI President Falk also sees a psychological component: Because of the top rate there in the vaccinations, people would have thought and also conveyed by politics that they could now take it easy.«But then Omikron came.»And between the contagion and further gaberish of Delta and Omikron there were worlds.In Bremen and also in Schleswig-Holstein, where the discos were open before and for the holidays, this had led to Superspreader events and subsequently the now so high incidence there.

As a special feature of Omikron, modelierer Brockmann leads that at first it mostly hits urban regions extremely violently.«London is currently much more affected than the rural areas of Great Britain.»In Denmark, the increase in Copenhagen concentrates that a similar development can also be seen in Germany - currently in Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin.In general, there are factors that favor a disproportionately increasing number of cases in cities - more visits to the cinema, museum or restaurant than in the country, for example and thus more contacts indoors.«This is particularly strong at Omikron.»

Ultimately, however, it is not only clear to the cities: «The wall comes delayed, but it comes.»Initially, in the case of smaller number of cases, the development can hardly be predicted - as with a small, ever flare -up and declining fire.From a certain point, however, it is only steeply uphill, said Brockmann.«Once it blazes, it blazes it.»

DGFI President Falk hopes that people continue to act with great caution and at least reduce the wall to the wave.«We have Omikron better under control than others, it is feasible that the numbers do not slip as much as other countries.»To wear an FFP2 mask in public space is one of the effective measures for it.Therefore, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) promotes mask obligation in the classrooms, which still does not apply continuously (Saxony's primary schools, for example, are still excluded).

He explained to the situation of the schools last week in the Journal: «That got me very much.However, it is also known that the omikron variant, which the dominant, if not in a few weeks, will be the sole variant, work very well.Therefore, I really appeal to all countries that you pretend that masks are worn here in schools because the mask in the omikron variant is actually very efficient and would offer great security, especially in schools.(...) The better the mask, the better it works, so I would actually recommend the FFP2 mask to my own children, that's clear.»

"The only advantage of the delayed Omikron Welle with us is that we have more time for the vaccinations"

"We will get incidence of well over 1000 - on a national average, regionally also clearly about it," Watzl, General Secretary of the German Society for Immunology, is convinced.«The highest level could be reached in February.“This is still too far away from spring to bring a mitigating effect to the seasonal decline.

"The only advantage of the delayed Omikron Welle with us is that we have more time for the vaccinations," said Watzl.Because even if the vaccination rate is not decisive for the spread - it is for the burden of clinics.«If omikron would also lead to 70 percent fewer hospital admissions compared to Delta, we would have the same load again with an incidence of 1500 as with the fourth wave.»

At the moment, the wall is building regional-in Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, for example-"very quickly and visible", as Zeeb from the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology said in Bremen.Nationwide, too, there is no wall with the rapid increase in 7-day incidence that is suddenly there, but a steep wave ».In his opinion, the next 10 days - even with the beginning of school in many federal states - will show whether similar maximum stands as in other countries are threatening.

The Leipzig epidemiologist Prof.Markus Scholz explained in an interview with T-Online.DE: «We assume that the case of infection could be up to six times higher than those that we saw in the delta wave.That means we could see record incidence.This variant is very contagious, so the number of infections will reach the height of fast and extreme top values.However, we also expect that the numbers will lose weight relatively quickly afterwards.»

When asked where the current stain of infection are, Scholz replied: “We cannot understand where people are infected in detail.One thing is clear: if a person is infected in the household, everyone else is very likely to be.That is hardly avoidable under Omikron.The same applies to work if, for example, you are in an office together.The schools are also a very important place of infection.Students currently have the highest incidence across all ages.And the teachers have the highest infection rate in all professional groups, despite the above -average vaccination rate.There is a massive infection here.»News4Teachers / with material of the dpa