BERLIN (DPA) – Berlin-based virologist Christian Drosten seems concerned about the new Omicron version of the coronavirus. “I am very worried at the moment,” said Drosten on ZDF – “Hate Journal”.

You don’t know much about the new variant. There just wasn’t much substance in the reports of mild courses considering only a good 1000 cases. Here you have to wait for the clinical course.

However, you can see that it occurs more often in young people in South Africa and also affects people who have already had a disease. He worries that the first real “immune escape mutant” is in front of him. It is not even possible to say how the variant behaves in this country, where many people have been vaccinated. “No one can say at this point in time what’s in store for us. The only thing you can really say for sure is this: getting vaccinated is better. When you’re promoted it’s even better ,” Drosten said. Available vaccines will probably protect against a severe course of the disease.

Difficult to measure growth

Drosten also spoke of a “somewhat impossible situation” in Germany in keeping with 2G or 3G regulations. You have no experience of this in the winter wave. One can hardly model the situation. Drosten advised politicians to pay close attention to stricter regulations, for example in the hotspots of Saxony, Bavaria and Austria. Here you can slowly see the first impression. For example, Drosten refers to the R-value decreasing towards 1 in Bavaria. The R-value indicates how many people an infected person infects on average – and thus how quickly a virus spreads. But you have to bring down the number of cases to 0.7 so that it can lead to exemptions in intensive care units.

Drosten also rated the positive news that the proportion of infected people who need to be ventilated is declining. This suggests that booster vaccination is gradually taking effect. But the process is slow. But people in the intensive care unit will continue to come. “And it’s terrible,” said Drosten.