Minister Lenert underlined that Europe is once again plagued by a Covid infection wave, which is why every country is determined to take immediate actions. The LSAP politician further stressed that all new measures were announced early on and will only come into effect after the country-wide vaccination week: “We are in the midst of winter, a time when the spread of the virus is more difficult to trace.”
The politician also acknowledged that none of the vaccines provide flawless protection levels: “That is why continued testing is important and should become a sort of habit. People should be considered of the most vulnerable ones in their surroundings, especially in light of the upcoming holidays.”
And yet, vaccinated people tend to be less contagious, which is why they will not have to quarantine if in contact with a positive case: “The risk of further infecting people is considerably lower, so we decided to maintain the rule so that society may continue functioning as normal as possible. All of our essential services feel the impact of increased quarantine rates, same as the economy. We need to keep things in balance.”
Even if a person’s antibody levels remain high, they should still get a booster jab, said Dr Tom Dentzer, virologist at the Health Directorate: “Antibody levels are only a small indicator for a person’s immunity, the main ones are the T-cells, which we do not measure. We also never fixed an exact rate by which we define people as being protected.”
Dr Dentzer further underlined that booster jabs have proven to be useful against the new Omicron variant: “That is another reason why we encourage people to get their third shot. We will again start with old and vulnerable people and work our way down. I repeat, one cannot be vaccinated enough!”
Dr Jean Reuter spoke about hospitalisation numbers and underlined that they have remained relatively stable over the past couple of days. He also acknowledged that since summer, two ICU patients at CHL were previously vaccinated, but still succumbed to the virus: “The vast majority of vaccinated people that end up in our hospital only stay for a couple of days. Other Covid patients have stay for weeks or even up to three months, before they are able to leave.”
