BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach fears that the corona situation will worsen significantly in autumn. “It will be a difficult autumn, we have to be prepared,” said the SPD politician on Friday evening in the ARD “Tagesthemen”. He believes that “we will have great difficulties with the BA.5 variant that is now spreading here”. He expects a very high number of cases, which could also lead to an overload of the critical infrastructure. “That is my fear,” said the minister.
On Friday, a committee of experts presented a long-awaited report on the effectiveness of previous corona protection measures. Accordingly, protective measures such as wearing a mask can continue to be helpful against the corona virus. However, behind many other well-known conditions, the expert committee puts big question marks, due to a lack of sufficient data, no reliable assessments are possible.
Lauterbach admitted on the ARD that so far “the data has not been perfect”. With a pandemic radar in hospitals and wastewater monitoring, he expects better data in September. The report is “not a Bible to quote from” and “not the last word,” emphasized the Minister of Health.
With Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP), he now wants to “very quickly come to regulations that better protect citizens in autumn and winter,” Lauterbach confirmed./shy/DP/men