Corona News: Japan relaxes mask guidelines – FOCUS online

News about Corona from March 13, 2023

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.

Corona-Quarantine: OVG negotiates dispute over wage compensation

Friday, March 10, 2023 at 07:04: In the dispute over wage compensation payments in the corona pandemic between the state and the meat industry, the North Rhine-Westphalian Higher Administrative Court is hearing two test cases on Friday (10:15 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.). In the first phase of the pandemic in spring 2020, the authorities sent many employees into quarantine. According to the Infection Protection Act, the affected companies, usually subcontractors of the slaughterhouses Tönnies (Rheda-Wiedenbrück) and Westfleisch (Münster), are entitled to compensation payments for the wages paid.

During the corona pandemic, NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) had instructed the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association to reject applications for compensation after employee infections. The minister had accused the companies of being partly responsible for the outbreak of the pandemic.

As a result, the administrative courts in Münster and Minden received more than 7,000 complaints and the first judgments were made. The judges in the first instance were largely unanimous. Only if it is clear that the employer alone is to blame for the ordered quarantine can the country refuse to pay compensation. However, there were a number of factors involved in the corona outbreak in spring 2020. At that time, nobody knew anything about the importance of aerosols and the transmission of corona via circulating air cooling. Therefore, the country cannot accuse the company of negligence.

The court in Münster wants to announce judgments in the appeal proceedings after the oral hearings. A year’s waiting time for the only long-Covid ambulance in the country

Tuesday, March 07, 2023, 06:20: Corona over, everything alright? No, says Astrid Weber, head of the only interdisciplinary long-Covid outpatient clinic in Rhineland-Palatinate in Koblenz. On the one hand, there are still new infections. On the other hand, at least ten percent of all Covid-19 sufferers probably suffered from persistent symptoms and one or two percent even from severe long-term impairments. There are a few particularly touching cases: “We had to prescribe a wheelchair for a 24-year-old woman. And a 14-year-old boy has even come to us in a wheelchair,” says Weber. “His muscles aren’t playing along anymore.”

Your outpatient clinic, which opened in May 2022 in the “Corona Competence Center” in downtown Koblenz, where tests and early therapies are also offered, cannot save itself from inquiries. “We have had around 320 patients so far,” sums up the doctor. “Every week we have around 30 inquiries. Our waiting time is now one year. At some point we have to think about closing the waiting list. ”The often desperate patients come from all over Rhineland-Palatinate and also from other federal states.

No wonder that Health Minister Clemens Hoch (SPD) is committed to more such outpatient clinics: “We are in discussion with the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) as to whether there is a possibility of establishing a special long-Covid contact point in every major city.” After all, other infectious diseases could also trigger long-term consequences: “It’s not just Corona.” Hoch cites in particular influenza infections that have not been cured as an example. “We have a lot of diseases that we know today that the immune system is also involved.” Such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. According to Minister Hoch, “the resident doctors have to decide to set up a long-Covid outpatient clinic, just like in Koblenz.”

According to the Ministry of Health, there are no concrete results from the talks that started in 2022. The KV emphasizes: “It has to come from the doctors.” KV spokesman Stefan Holler says: “We cannot assign an approval status there.”

The Koblenz pioneer Astrid Weber sees a problem with the fee. An appointment with long and post-Covid patients often lasts an hour, which she can also settle with her additional training as a psychotherapist – but not, for example, a family doctor: “He is only paid ten minutes. That can’t work overall.” She urgently wishes for more long-Covid outpatient clinics in the country – for her own relief and also for professional exchange.

Long Covid refers to symptoms that last more than four weeks after an infection or illness. Post Covid refers to symptoms or health disorders that are still present or new after more than twelve weeks and cannot be explained in any other way.

Astrid Weber says at her desk: “A lot is still unexplored here.” It’s like poking around in the fog. In 36 years of work, she has never experienced an illness “where we have to learn so much knowledge so quickly”. The whole person in all his systems can be affected, physically and mentally. So far, it has been possible to combat symptoms more effectively. “But it is also helpful for the patients that they feel that we take them seriously,” emphasizes the doctor, who, in her own words, works “easily 60 hours a week”.

At the beginning and end of an appointment, she also uses a dark blue hand-held power meter to try to fathom the performance of patients: how much of a difference is there? In some patients, the value drops considerably within an hour. Ann-Kristin Specht, Weber’s only permanent employee, says: “We need patience. Some people just fall asleep in the middle of the test.”

Many are seriously ill. According to Weber, they suffer from permanent exhaustion (fatigue), lack of concentration and stress, various types of pain or shortness of breath. Lust for life and strength dwindle away. Ann-Kristin Specht says: “The average age here is 44 years. The youngest patient is 12 and the oldest 83 years old.” Striking: three quarters of all visitors to the Long Covid outpatient clinic in Koblenz are women. Director Astrid Weber explains: “Women have a different immune system than men.” Meanwhile, next door, she lets a patient walk on a long red line with right angles for minutes to test her ability to exercise.

Much remains a mystery after three years of the pandemic. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) therefore wants to mobilize millions for research into suitable care for long-Covid patients. A competence center for the post-Covid syndrome is also planned at the Mainz University Hospital. According to Unimedizin, this is a contact point for those affected with needs-based, interdisciplinary coordinated diagnostics and individualized therapy recommendations as well as the development of prevention, diagnostics and therapy concepts.

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