Corona-News: Every third employee is absent due to Covid

News about Corona from March 16, 2023

According to AOK, every third employee is absent due to Covid

Thursday March 16, 2023 6:36 am: According to the health insurance company AOK, at least a third of the full-time employees insured with it were absent from their company for a day or longer during the pandemic. Around 455,000 of the 1.4 million continuously employed insured persons of the AOK Baden-Württemberg (32 percent) were written off at least once between March 2020 and December 2022 due to a Covid 19 disease, the health insurance company announced on Thursday. Almost 11,000 employees (1 percent) had or have to recover from long-term effects of a corona infection. This also has an effect on the sickness rate in the country, which according to the AOK was higher last year than it had been in a dozen years.

According to the evaluation of the Scientific Institute of the AOK (WIdO), the different virus variants had different consequences for the statistics. In the period of the dominant delta variant between September and December 2021, 2.5 percent of those who were acutely ill had a so-called post-Covid illness. “Their proportion is twice as high as in the time when the omicron variant prevailed,” said the AOK. This had a late effect on only 1.1 percent of all those acutely affected by Covid at the time.

According to the evaluation, delta or omicron are also reflected in the average length of incapacity to work due to a post-Covid illness: In the period when the delta variant was dominant, the average duration was 43.2 days, significantly longer than in the period in which the omicron variant was dominant (30.9 days). “The good news is that both the number of people affected and the severity of the disease, which can be derived from the days lost, have decreased over the course of the pandemic,” said Jana Linsky, Head of Medicine at AOK Baden-Württemberg.

According to the AOK, the duration of a loss of work has so far been based primarily on age. Employees under the age of 30 were on average 7.27 days unfit for work due to an acute illness and 16.65 days due to a post-Covid illness. For patients aged 60 and over, these values ​​averaged 11.07 days and 45.24 days. Across all employees in Baden-Württemberg, there was an average of 9 lost days for acute Covid illnesses and an average of 30 days for post-Covid illnesses. According to AOK information, childcare workers and educators, occupational therapists and employees in health and nursing as well as in geriatric care were particularly often infected.

However, the AOK, which claims to be health insurance for more than 4.5 million people in the country, emphasizes that there are many unreported cases because many Covid failures lasting up to three days are not documented. In addition, there are different diagnoses and definitions of the long-term consequences. In addition, acute Covid infections were sometimes recorded unspecifically as respiratory infections.

According to the State Health Office, more than 5 million Covid cases have been registered in Baden-Württemberg alone. Since then, almost 19,300 people have died in connection with the corona virus (as of March 9, 4 p.m.).

China wants to lift visa restrictions imposed because of Corona

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 6:20 a.m.: After the lifting of almost all corona rules in China, most of the visa restrictions for foreigners should now also fall. From Wednesday, a number of visas should be issued again, the responsible department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday. In addition, visas that were issued before March 2020 and are still valid should allow entry into the People’s Republic again.

According to the new regulations, visa-free travel should again be possible for tourists who arrive in the metropolis of Shanghai by cruise ship.

The People’s Republic had around 65.7 million international visitors in 2019 – and thus before Corona. After the start of the pandemic, the country almost completely isolated itself from the outside world from March 2020. Many foreigners residing in China have been cut off from their jobs and their families as a result. Tourists stopped coming to the country.

Until shortly before the end of last year, China had been pursuing an extremely strict pandemic policy with mass tests, rigid quarantine regulations and travel restrictions with serious consequences for social life and the economy. In November, pent-up resentment erupted in the largest public demonstrations in decades. The government then abruptly ended the corona measures: millions of people became infected, thousands died, and the authorities did not record exact numbers.

Japan is also relaxing corona guidelines for wearing masks

Monday March 13, 2023 4:41 am: Germany has largely abolished the legal obligation to wear masks, Japan never had one. Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, the Japanese have consistently worn face masks, whether indoors or outdoors. Laws were not necessary for this. The state only issued recommendations. But those have also been lifted since Monday. According to the new guidelines, masks only have to be worn in medical facilities, nursing homes and on crowded public transport. However, observers expect the country’s citizens to keep their previous habit of wearing masks everywhere – often alone in the car – for the time being.

The Japanese have always attached great importance to hygiene. Wearing a face mask when you have a cold, for example, so as not to infect others, was common even before the corona pandemic. Just like bowing instead of shaking hands or taking off your shoes before going into the house. Talking loudly on trains, which are chronically overcrowded in Japan’s megacities like Tokyo, has always been considered impolite.

Under the new guidelines, the state continues to advise the population that masks protect people at higher risk of serious illnesses, including the elderly. However, airlines and public transport will no longer ask their customers to wear a mask. The same applies to operators of large supermarket chains and convenience stores. Also

In principle, schools will no longer require the wearing of a face mask from April 1, the start of the new school year. However, it is expected that customers will still be asked to wear masks at hairdressers, beauty salons and other services where the distance to customers is close.

Vaccine injustice must “never” be repeated in new pandemics

Saturday March 11, 2023 9:48 am: Three years after the corona spread was classified as a pandemic, almost 200 personalities have called for an end to vaccine injustice in the world. Unequal access to vaccines, as during the corona pandemic, should “never” be repeated, they said on Saturday. The WHO classified the spread of the coronavirus as a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

The vaccines used against the coronavirus were and still are available differently in the individual countries. While large parts of the population were vaccinated relatively quickly in industrialized countries, there was hardly any vaccine available in poor countries.

This must not be repeated in future pandemics, according to the statement now published, which was coordinated by the non-governmental organization People’s Vaccine Alliance. “The decisions made now will determine how the world prepares and responds to future global health crises.” Signatories to the declaration include several Nobel laureates, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former leaders from more than 40 countries.

You can read older news about the corona pandemic on the following pages.