Corona-News: The warning function of the Corona-App expires

News about Corona from April 30, 2023

warning function of Corona-App expires

Sunday, April 30, 2023, 3:50 p.m.: The function for mutual warnings in the federal corona app, which has been used millions of times, will expire on Sunday. As of this Monday, it will no longer be possible to warn others after a positive test and receive a red alert after “risk encounters”, as announced by the Federal Ministry of Health. In view of the more relaxed corona situation, the app should then go into “sleep mode” on June 1 and will no longer be updated for the time being. But you can keep them on your cell phone to continue using electronic vaccination certificates.

According to the app makers, there were a total of a good nine million people who used the app to issue more than 270 million warnings after a positive test. Since it was launched on June 16, 2020, the app has been downloaded more than 48 million times, and up to 35 million have actively used the application. The distance and duration of encounters between smartphones with an installed app were determined. According to the ministry, the app can be “awakened” from sleep mode promptly if the pandemic situation becomes more critical again.

Corona-Review: Virologist Klaus Stöhr accuses politicians of refusal

Saturday, April 29, 9:26 am: The virologist Klaus Stöhr criticizes the unwillingness of the traffic light coalition to review the corona policy. Stöhr told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ): “My impression is that the parties desperately hope not to be responsible for the government in the next pandemic. I can’t explain my refusal otherwise. I have no understanding for that. “You have to desperately draw the right conclusions from the past in order to be better prepared for the next pandemic.”

Stöhr firmly rejects fears, such as those expressed by Greens health expert Janosch Dahmen, that a reappraisal could further divide society. “If Mr. Dahmen is afraid of the critical discourse, he probably shouldn’t have gone into politics. Every analysis potentially also leads to an argument: also a backward-looking pandemic processing. But that is also necessary.”

Stöhr is one of the initiators of a letter from numerous doctors and other experts to the federal government calling for a systematic scientific review of the corona policy. “There is a social and political responsibility to learn from the pandemic. You also owe it to the taxpayer, who contributed about 5,300 euros per capita to the measures. Anyone who doesn’t want to learn from their mistakes will repeat them,” Stöhr told the NOZ.

The aim of such a commission should be “to bring Germany’s pandemic plan up to date”. “It can’t be that those responsible have to fall back on the current plan in the next pandemic. The costs of not doing this will be much higher than the expenses for a commission,” Stöhr warned. A selective processing, such as with the current school studies, is not enough.

Statutory health insurance physicians see the establishment of longCovid-Anchor centers critical

7.55 p.m.: The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) is critical of the Rhineland-Palatinate state government’s plans to set up five anchor centers for people with long or post-Covid. “We’re not resisting it,” said KV CEO Peter Heinz on Thursday, but there were no doctors, money or meaningful treatments.

“We see a lot of people with serious consequences. However, the symptoms are totally inconsistent and colourful.” The right treatment is still unclear and “a structure without knowing what I have to do is not so conclusive”. It makes more sense to have the patients treated by the appropriate specialist first, depending on their symptoms. “For most of them, however, it develops for the better over time,” emphasized general practitioner Heinz.

Not only doctors were missing for the anchor centers, but also medical staff, said KV board member and psychotherapist Peter Andreas Staub. The financing is also unclear, the health insurance companies have not yet answered the KV, but the ministry expects the insurance companies and the KV to agree, said the deputy chairman of the board and anesthetist, Andreas Bartels. The state government’s planned EUR 50,000 per anchor center is just a drop in the ocean. Bartels spoke out in favor of controlling general practitioners and creating networks of medical specialists. According to the Ministry of Health, around 80,000 people in Rhineland-Palatinate suffer from long or post-Covid symptoms.

Medical officers: end of the warning function Coronaapp justified

Thursday, April 27, 10:30 a.m.: From the point of view of the medical officers, the end of the warnings via the federal corona app on May 1st is justified. The app was “a useful tool” for pointing out possible transmissions of infection in good time and then arranging tests, the Federal Association of Doctors in the Public Health Service explained at the request of the German Press Agency. At present, there are hardly any serious courses of the disease. The risk of having to be treated in intensive care because of a corona infection is extremely low. “In this respect, it is justified to switch off the warning function.”

As it also says in a user information in the app, it is only possible up to and including this Sunday to warn others after a positive test and to receive warnings about “risk encounters”. The app should then go into “sleep mode” on June 1 and, according to the Federal Ministry of Health, will no longer be updated for the time being. But you can keep them on your cell phone to continue using electronic vaccination certificates.

The Association of Medical Officers reported that the app had helped reduce the number of transmissions of infections. She also gave directions for action. “But the benefit should still be evaluated.” According to the app makers, there were a total of a good nine million people who, after a positive test, used the app to issue more than 270 million warnings. Since it was launched on June 16, 2020, the app has been downloaded more than 48 million times and up to 35 million have actively used the application.

The digital industry association Bitkom described the app as a “success story made in Germany”. President Achim Berg said: “It saved human lives and was constantly being further developed and supplemented by many useful additional functions.” It was extremely compliant with data protection, and the publication of its source code ensured transparency. It is important that the app can be quickly woken up from sleep mode if the worst comes to the worst.

The Association of Medical Officers explained that in the current situation “without any significant risk potential for public health” due to the Omicron variant, the breaking of infection chains is no longer a priority. Investigations were therefore still carried out in health authorities for orientation and assessment of the situation, but no longer comprehensively. Corona reports were still received to a very small extent. Monitoring data from the wastewater and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) would therefore probably give a better overview of the infection process than PCR results that are received by the authorities.

Many calls to the information hotline about corona vaccination complaints

Tuesday, April 25, 8:05 a.m.: Almost 2,000 people have reported health problems after a corona vaccination to a telephone hotline. “The experiences of the hotline show that the psychological strain on some people is enormous and that it was therefore right to create an offer of information,” said Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) on Tuesday. The calls come not only from Bavaria, but also from many other federal states.

The Free State launched the so-called Post-Vac hotline at the beginning of the month. Up to 15 employees from the State Office for Health and Food Safety in Erlangen provide telephone advice. After an initial rush in the first week of sometimes more than 400 calls per day, the inquiries have now leveled off in a double-digit range per day, according to the ministry.

According to the ministry, not enough is known about the so-called post-vac syndrome. Symptoms that are similar to those of post- or long-Covid can occur. “Therefore, we urgently need more intensive research on this complex of topics,” warned Holetschek. The conference of health ministers therefore asked the federal government to intensify research on this.

Holetschek emphasized that the post-vac syndrome should be distinguished from the vaccination damage after a corona vaccination. These are very rare: In Bavaria, 90 vaccination damages are known to date, compared to around 29 million Covid 19 vaccinations.

Health insurance companies do not yet accept corona vaccinations everywhere

Sunday, April 23, 6:00 a.m.: After the end of the crisis rules that have been in force for a long time, corona vaccinations are not yet available directly at health insurance companies in all federal states. The necessary remuneration agreements were initially only decided in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia, Westphalia-Lippe and Saarland, as the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) announced at the request of the German Press Agency. Where the reimbursement of costs has not yet been regulated, such as in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin, patients will first receive a private bill, which they can then submit to their statutory health insurance company for reimbursement.

At Easter, the organization of the corona vaccinations switched from the previous crisis mode to regular care in the practices. According to the information, the remuneration for this is regulated at the state level between the associations of statutory health insurance physicians and health insurance companies.

The framework for entitlement to free vaccinations is now a guideline based on the recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko). According to a federal ordinance, vaccinations are still possible at health insurance costs if a doctor deems it medically necessary. Vaccination, which was once in high demand, has been sluggish for a long time.

Drosten: Population immunity led to the end of the pandemic

Saturday, April 22, 9:37 a.m.: According to the Berlin virologist Christian Drosten, population-wide immunity against the corona virus has led to the end of the corona pandemic in Germany. “We are now in a situation across the population that we are immune. That is population immunity and that is why the pandemic is over now, ”said Drosten at an event of the Research Network for Zoonotic Infectious Diseases on Friday in Berlin.

The Charité professor emphasized that the pandemic is not over because the omicron variant is mild. “Omicron is not mild. That’s just a public misrepresentation,” said Drosten. “What puts us in a better situation is the vaccination in particular and then the possibility of finally being able to infect ourselves on the basis of the vaccination without dying.” The so-called hybrid immunity protects perfectly against severe courses. Hybrid immunity is when a person is both vaccinated and infected, or has recovered.

Drosten had already commented on the end of the pandemic in an interview at the end of 2022, but then felt misunderstood. In the “Coronavirus Update” podcast on NDR-Info, the virologist said in January that he actually said something different than what was received by parts of the public. The end of the pandemic cannot be announced in advance, you can only look at it afterwards – i.e. after this wave.

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