Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is concerned about the new coronavirus variant XBB.1.5. "Hopefully we can get through the winter before such a variant can spread to us," he wrote on Twitter that night.

"We monitor whether and how strong XBB.1.5 occurs in Germany." The new variant is increasing the number of hospital admissions in the north-east of the USA. At the beginning of the year, the US health authority CDC estimated that XBB.1.5 accounted for around 40.5 percent of all new infections in the USA in the week before the turn of the year.

Yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO) was concerned about the new coronavirus variant. The variant discovered in October is as easily transferrable as none of the previously known variants, it said. According to the available genetic analyzes of the virus, it is spreading primarily in the USA and Europe and has already been detected in 29 countries. It is a subgroup of the omicron variant that has been circulating since the end of 2021. A risk analysis is in progress and will be published shortly.