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Mandatory Credit: Bundesministerium fur Gesundheit

German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned about the ease of COVID transmission, in particular the new mutation, as he announced a new monitoring scheme on Monday in Berlin.

Spahn promised a financial reward for labs that "send positive SARS-CoV-2 with genome sequences" to the Robert Koch Institute.

"We are rewarding the communicated, hard-earned data to the tune of 220 Euros (265 dollars) per sequence." This is in an effort to better monitor and understand the virus.

However, he reminded the public, that "it is important to hinder the spread of this mutation and at the same time protect the particularly vulnerable." He then reiterated, "limiting contact and continuing to bring down infection numbers is so important."

Spahn has come under fire in recent weeks due to the slow roll out of the vaccine. According to the Robert Koch Institute, just over 1.1 million people have received the first vaccine dose.

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SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): "Two highly infectious variants of the coronavirus has been identified until this point. The first has been spreading throughout Great Britain, and the other in South Africa, and we also have worrying news from Brazil. In order to prevent their spread throughout continental Europe, Germany has massively restricted arrivals from these countries, on 4th Advent (December 20) when we got the first reports, and then last week modified the decree to include not only rules on the United Kingdom and South Africa but also a general framework of rules on how we deal with other countries in which the mutations are a cause for concern."

SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): "For this there has been the creation of a network of laboratories which the Robert Koch Institute has already been supporting for the past few years. These labs regularly send positive SARS-CoV-2 with genome sequences back to the Robert Koch Institute and/or to the Charite coronavirus conservation labs. But that is not enough in the current situation, in order to identify quickly and comprehensively known and unknown mutations in Germany, and in doing so to monitor which and in what way the virus is changing in Germany and which mutations arise."

SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): "That is what the coronavirus surveillance decree I am signing today is for. With this decree we are requiring labs to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 and give the results to the Robert Koch Institute. We are rewarding the communicated, hard-earned data to the tune of 220 Euros (265 dollars) per sequence."

SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): "And for positive corona samples given to the special labs we are offering compensation of costs. The amount of the desired samples in accordance with the current infection situation apply accordingly as at least five percent of tests should have their genomes sequenced. The analysis of the coronavirus is a solid part of the monitoring of the pandemic."

SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): "Because, for all we know so far, this mutation is first and foremost one which is more transmissible than others. It is, as far as we know, not one which changes the course of the illness, that is reassuring, but the fact that many, many more people are infected at a higher rate means that more people will be at clinics and intensive care units for treatment. More transmission means more ill and seriously ill people. Therefore it is important to hinder the spread of this mutation and at the same time protect the particularly vulnerable."

SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): "We are doing that through testing, the decree on arrivals to the country, through testing, through vaccination of care home staff and residents and also through this structured coronavirus surveillance. We want to know not only to what extent the virus is present in Germany but also which other variants are present and newly developing in Germany. That's why limiting contact and continuing to bring down infection numbers is so important."

SOT, Jens Spahn, German Health Minister (German): "We should also talk about viruses and mutations which have been discovered, possibly in Great Britain or South Africa and now in Brazil, but this virus has no nationality, and nor do the mutations."

#Germany #Berlin #JensSpahn #COVID #mutation #coronavirus

Video ID: 20210118-030

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