WHO classifies the new Corona mutation as "worrying". The compulsory use of masks at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia is being put to the test. In Bonn, the number of Corona vaccinations is increasing.

Due to the spread of the new coronavirus variant Omicron in southern Africa, the German government is drastically restricting entry from a total of eight countries in the region. South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi and Lesotho will be classified as virus variant areas as of this Sunday, as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced on Friday.

Airlines are thus essentially only allowed to transport German citizens or persons living in Germany from there to Germany. However, it is not a flight ban. A two-week quarantine obligation applies to those entering the country - even for vaccinated and recovered persons. It cannot be shortened by negative tests.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had classified variant B.1.1.529 as "cause for concern" on Friday. Experts fear that the many mutations of the variant will cause the pathogen to spread more quickly or the vaccines to lose their protective effect. In the meantime, there is also a first suspected case in a traveller returning to Germany from South Africa.

According to the Max von Pettenkofer Institute in Munich, the first two cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which has been classified as a cause for concern, have been confirmed in Germany. The two travellers arrived on a flight from South Africa on November 24, said Bavaria's Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) on Saturday. He said that the people concerned had taken the precaution of having themselves tested for the virus variant after learning of the danger from the media. According to the head of the institute and virologist Oliver Keppler, a genome sequencing is still pending. But it has been "proven beyond doubt that this variant is involved".

In addition, all persons entering southern Africa from the areas classified by the Robert Koch Institute as virus-variant areas must be quarantined for 14 days - this also applies regardless of vaccination status.

The acting Federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, has brought long restrictions for the unvaccinated into play in the Corona pandemic. The CDU politician said he was fundamentally sceptical about a general compulsory vaccination. An alternative to be discussed would be universal 2G for all areas of life, i.e. access only for vaccinated and recovered persons. There could be an announcement: "Be prepared for 2G, vaccinated or recovered, with booster vaccination from a point x, valid at least for the whole year 2022. If you want to do anything more than visit your town hall or your supermarket, you have to be vaccinated. This would be a pretty clear announcement.

That, he said, is an option that needs to be discussed. "After all, we all see what is going on in this country because eleven million adults have not yet been convinced. And everyone is suffering from that now," Spahn said. Germany is probably in the "most difficult" and "most dramatic" time of this pandemic. One only has to look to Saxony, Bavaria, Thuringia and Baden-Württemberg and to many clinics. The wave will continue westwards. The question is how high the wave will be. "That is in our hands.

Even if the effectiveness of the available vaccines could be lower with the new Corona variant Omicron according to data known so far: Vaccination remains the best option even in this case, as experts emphasise. "All people who get vaccinated are not starting from scratch if they are infected with a new variant," Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), emphasised on Saturday in Berlin at a virtual citizens' dialogue. In any case, they already have a certain level of vaccination protection, he said, which is crucial to know.

The level of immunity can generally be raised again very strongly by the booster vaccinations - which also helps against variants, the infectious immunologist continued. "The boosters remain important, especially against variants." For a precise assessment of Omicron in particular, data is still lacking - it is therefore also unclear whether an adjustment of the vaccines will be necessary.

For the time being, it is called B.1.1.529. In expert circles, it is already called the Ny variant. This variant has so far appeared in several countries in southern Africa, also in Hong Kong and Israel. Another case was registered in Belgium, over 60 in the Netherlands, two in Germany. After the first sequencing, Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist from the USA, wrote on Twitter that B.1.1.529 could be 500 percent more contagious than previous variants. The number of mutations in the spike protein is twice as high as in the delta variant. Because of the newly emerged variant, the federal government is drastically restricting air travel to South Africa. The country is now considered a virus variant area, the Federal Ministry of Health announced. "As a result, airlines are only allowed to transport German citizens to Germany." In addition, all those entering the country would have to be quarantined for 14 days - even if they were fully vaccinated. It was further stated that the new classification will possibly also affect neighbouring countries of South Africa. How connections to Belgium will be handled remained open at first.

Doctors in Bonn are getting angry: This Friday, they learned that they will receive significantly fewer Biontech vaccine doses next week than they were allowed to order at the beginning of the week.

Doctors have to cancel numerous Corona vaccination appointments for next week on an ad hoc basis because they only learned on Thursday evening or this Friday that they will receive significantly fewer Biontech vaccine doses than they were allowed to order at the beginning of the week. "That stuns me," says Stefan Latz, a doctor from Bad Godesberg, for example.

The willingness to vaccinate in Bonn is growing. This Thursday, according to the city of Bonn, for the first time more than 1,000 vaccinations were carried out in one day. For comparison: In the past weeks, there had been an average of about 400 vaccinations per day, in the past few days about 500 vaccinations per day. The town hall vaccination centre is still open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Vaccinations are available without an appointment, but waiting times must be expected.

Citizens can also get their first, second or booster vaccinations on all four Advent weekends. Vaccinations take place at the Bonn-Information, Windeckstraße 1, between 12 and 4 p.m. each day. Further information about the Corona vaccination is available on the internet at www.bonn.de/impfen.ga.

The new satirical series "Faking Hitler" about the scandal of the faked diaries starts on November 30 on RTL+. Filming for it also took place in Bonn and Troisdorf. How good did the final result turn out to be?

The superhuman efforts of late are giving me flatulence in my intestines, and Eva says I have bad breath." The alleged Hitler diaries with much quoted passages like this were a sensation in 1983, but were exposed as a flat forgery shortly after their publication in "Stern". In his legendary cinema satire "Schtonk!", director Helmut Dietl made a mockery of this "hoax" in 1993 - almost 30 years later, the scandal is now being re-adapted: The series "Faking Hitler" (from November 30, RTL+), which is well worth seeing, retells the story of the forged Hitler diaries with a star-studded cast and a modern look at the West German past. The film was shot in Bonn and the region, among others in Muffendorf and Troisdorf.

The six 45-minute episodes will later be shown on linear television on RTL, but no date has been set yet.

Original text: ga/dpa

Translation: Mareike Graepel