The highly contagious Omikron variant is also spreading in Germany. Leading experts predict a sharp increase in infections in January.
That means: In all probability, many millions of people in Germany will be infected with Omikron, and the hospital burden will increase.
Nevertheless, researchers from all over the world say: The Omicron variant could be THE BEGINNING OF THE END of the pandemic.
BILD names five facts about Omikron that make Germany HOPE.
Mild gradients
Omikron is much more contagious than other corona variants, but often leads to much milder disease processes. Researchers at London’s Imperial College found that Omikron’s total hospital stays decreased by 20 to 25 percent compared to Delta.
The British Telegraph cited research that found that 63% of people who were reported by clinics as Omikron patients were not BECAUSE of Omikron in hospital. The corona virus was only discovered by chance in them.
Photo: Michael Sohn / AP
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No clinic collapse
The British have record numbers of infections. BUT: The hospital burden is only increasing slowly. Although more people with a positive corona test come to the clinics there, “Intensive care admissions with ventilation are not increasing,” tweeted Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (58, SPD).
Medicine professor John Bell (University of Oxford) told the BBC: “The terrible scenes that we saw a year ago when the intensive care units were full” are “history”. Because of Omikron, Corona is “no longer the same disease” as it was a year ago.
Delta is displaced
Thanks to Omikron, the more dangerous Delta variant could retreat. “Omikron will likely oust Delta,” said South African virologist Alex Sigal of the “New York Times”. He interprets this as a positive sign: It is possible that Omikron could be “easier to live with”, it will possibly “burden us less than the previous variants”.
The American epidemiologist Nathan Grubaugh (Uni Yale) also confirms: “We see that the omicron increases exponentially while delta cases decrease.” The new variant will “contain delta cases”.
Fewer deaths
South African researchers examined the hospital admissions in the epicenter of the Omikron variant and found: Before the Omikron variant, around 21% of the severe cases died, currently only 4.5%.
The population in South Africa is on average much younger than in many Western countries (including Germany). Still: According to the Telegraph, the death rate in Great Britain has also fallen since the Omikron cases (preliminary data).
Endemic instead of pandemic
Experts believe that Omikron can end the pandemic and lead us into endemic. Means: Corona would not be gone, but it would no longer be a threat to our healthcare system.
“Everything is actually going in the right direction, towards endemics,” said virologist Klaus Stöhr (62) at BILD LIVE.
Due to the high “infection pressure” in winter, Stöhr does not give the all-clear for the time being. Nevertheless, the Omikron variant will soon also have an impact on the measures.
Shortening the quarantine period is already being discussed in the federal government.
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