Since the vaccination campaign was launched in Germany at the end of December, more than half a million people have now been immunised against coronavirus. Up to Saturday morning, the Robert Koch Institute had recorded 532,878 vaccinations, according to the institute’s statistics from Saturday (as of 11:00 a.m.). Compared to the previous day, the number of reported vaccinations has risen by more than 50,000.

Statistics show that the highest number of vaccinations per 1000 inhabitants has so far been recorded in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (15.6) and the lowest number is in Saxony (4.4). In absolute numbers, North Rhine-Westphalia has the highest amount with 98,950 vaccinations, according to the RKI. The figures available to the authorities of the individual federal states may be significantly higher than those reported by the RKI, as there is sometimes a slight delay in transmitting reports to the institute.

(Original text: GA)

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SIEBENGEBIRGE. Despite the grey weather and lack of sunshine on Saturday, many day trippers were once again attracted to the snowy Siebengebirge. The hotspot was the Margarethenhöhe, where car parks were already packed by midday and drivers could be seen searching for a place to leave their cars. Some turned away and tried their luck elsewhere around Oelberg and Löwenburg. The car parks used by walkers in the "hinterland" were also full.

Staff from the public order office in Königswinter were out in force, not only keeping a watchful eye on the traffic, but also checking compliance with corona regulations. Most of the day trippers behaved in a disciplined manner, however the public order office had to intervene in some cases.

"We have been carring out random checks on groups and people are sticking to the rule - five people from two households. The visitors are disciplined, friendly and reasonable", said Nicolas Klein, head of the public order office in Königswinter. "The day trippers come here when it snows. We are not like Winterberg, but we are still vigilant." There had been chaos in Winterberg and in the Eifel last weekend, with visitors leaving rubbish and people using residents’ gardens as toilets. “We haven't seen or heard anything like that here yet," said Klein.

However, the public order office did intervene in other cases involving traffic regulations and violations of the Corona Protection Ordinance. On Saturday, staff handed out 17 parking tickets to motorists for parking incorrectly, including one who had even parked in the nature reserve. There were five violations of the outdoor alcohol ban. On four occasions, visitors to the Siebengebirge had not observed the 50-metre radius to be kept from a sales stand. The public order office also discovered seven people from a combined total of three households on a joint excursion. Apart from these events, visitors to the popular Siebengebirge on Saturday seemed to be considerate on the whole.

The misty weather meant that there were fewer visitors to the Siebengebirge than ever recorded in the month of January. Masks were mandatory on the Drachenfels plateau. Nicolas Klein explained, “we will monitor the situation after the weekend. If we see that not enough distance is being kept when tobogganing, we will extend the mask requirement to other areas if necessary."

(Original text: Roswitha Oschmann)

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Due to the extended lockdown, the holiday timetable will apply in Bonn, the Rhein-Sieg district and in the city of Cologne until 31 January. The extension of the holiday timetable serves a very important purpose: to conserve reserves of the Stadtwerke Bonn and to give staff the chance to look after their children. At the same time, the city and the transport company are taking special situations into account. According to the municipal authorities, staff at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and at the Marienhospital are to be protected as far as possible and therefore a number of extra buses will run. In addition to the holiday timetable, three extra buses on line 601 will run between the main railway station and the University Hospital (departures at 7.11, 7.22 and 7.32 a.m. from Bonn main railway station).

A subcontractor will provide the following services, which for technical reasons cannot be displayed in apps/online nor at the stops:

In addition, according to the municipal authorities, Stadtwerke Bonn has bus reserves in the city area that can quickly provide relief if there are capacity overloads. Bus utilisation will be closely monitored in the coming weeks and services will be adjusted if necessary.

(Original text: buj)

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BONN. In contrast to the Rhein-Sieg District, the health authority in Bonn has not been working with the epidemic management system Sormas, which was originally developed for contact tracing by the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in the fight against Ebola in Africa.

Andrea Schulte from the city press office informed upon request that the authority in Bonn has been using its own system, called CovDi (Covid Digital) since 20 May. This programme has been designed, programmed, tested and put into operation using city funds. Since then, the programme has been successively expanded according to the health authority’s requirements.

It is not possible to directly exchange information with other health authorities via CovDi, although this also takes place in digital form. According to Schulte, the city can envisage changing over to Sormas. "In the current phase with high case numbers this would also involve some effort, as all staff would have to be retrained at the same time. At the moment, new staff can be quickly trained by current, already trained staff," said Schulte.

During a visit to the Siegburg District House on Tuesday, NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann and NRW Economics Minister Andreas Pinkwart said that so far seven of 53 health authorities in the state were operating the Sormas system. The ministers want to push its introduction, relying on persuasion, but do not rule out applying pressure.

The system is praised by many for its clarity. It enables the recording of contacts and laboratory findings, monitoring of symptoms, and also takes the consequences into account if contacts become symptomatic. Its work processes include an appointment system, task catalogue and reminder system and it enables exchange with other health offices using the same system. According to the developers, personal data is only visible to the authorities.

(Original text: Philipp Königs)

(Translations: Caroline Kusch)