Covid update BioNTech CEO says new Covid vaccines will be needed for 2022
NRW · The Covid incidence rate in NRW continues to fall slightly while the national average in Germany increases marginally. Meanwhile, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin says Covid vaccines will need to be adapted for 2022.
According to BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin, Covid-19 vaccines will need to be adapted to new virus variants in 2022. In the current year, this is unnecessary because the vaccines are effective against the variants to date, even if they are more contagious, Sahin told the Financial Times. "But by the middle of next year, the situation could be different," he added. Currently, booster vaccines appeared to be able to combat the main variants. But he said the virus will develop additional mutations over time. It is possible that a new variant could escape the immune response triggered by the vaccine, requiring a "tailored" version, Sahin said. "This virus will stay, and the virus will continue to adapt.
Covid incidence in NRW continues to fall slightly
The Covid incidence rate in North Rhine-Westphalia has continued to fall slightly. According to RKI data, on Monday morning it was 52.9. The day before it was 53.8 and a week earlier 57.7. The national average in Germany, however, rose slightly on Monday morning by 0.5 to 64.7. As of Monday morning, the highest incidence in NRW continued to be in Hagen with 130.4. That reflected a slight drop from the previous day (137.8). The lowest incidence rate was in the district of Coesfeld with 16.3.
The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital fell by 31 to 953 last Friday and the number of patients in intensive care units by 16 to 330. The number of people on ventilators because of coronavirus was 220 on Friday, seven fewer than a day earlier.
The seven-day incidence in Germany increased slightly compared to the previous day. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 64.7 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week as of Monday morning.
Orig. text: GA
Translation: ck
