Today's Berlin corona news in 60 seconds
+++ Hospitalisations down +++ Record vaccinations +++ Corona jobless +++ Broke airport +++
The latest corona stats for Berlin (tallied Thursday, 29 April)
Berliners vaccinated with one vaccine dose: 24.1 per cent (23.1 per cent Wednesday)
New cases in one day: +742 (+1,053 Wednesday)
Total number of corona deaths: 3,210 (0 new deaths reported)
🟢 R number: 0.74 (0.74 Wednesday)
🔴 New infections per week: 130.2/100,000 inhabitants (134 Wednesday)
🔴 Share of Berlin ICUs occupied by Covid-19 patients: 25.9 per cent (26.4 per cent Wednesday)
Sources: Berlin's coronavirus status page, impfdashboard.de
The latest news
Covid-19 hospitalisation rate dropping
The Robert Koch Institute reports that hospitalisations due to Covid have dropped to 4 per cent of people testing positive for the coronavirus. During the second wave of the pandemic in the winter, that figure hovered at around 12 per cent. The institute says the drop is evidence that vaccination of elderly people is having a positive effect. Meanwhile, health minister Jens Spahn said about 1.1 million people had been vaccinated against the coronavirus on Wednesday, a new record.
More long-term jobless
Corona has ravaged the Berlin labour market. According to the Agentur für Arbeit, 209,784 people are currently registered as unemployed, 55,000 more than one year ago. The jobless rate has stagnated at 10.5 per cent. Most worrying, perhaps: 77,346 people are now classified as "long-term unemployed" (without work for at least one year), double the rate of a year ago.
Airport operator lost €1bn
Some of those jobseekers were probably employed in aviation: the state-owned company running BER airport (and Tegel before it shut down) reported a shortfall of €1bn in 2020. The number of passengers at Berlin airports fell from 35.6m in 2019 to 9.1m, resulting in a drastic drop in revenue. However, a large portion of the loss was due to expenses linked to the launch of BER, which opened last Halloween.
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The Berlin Natural History Museum houses the largest dinosaur skeleton in the world. More than a century after the find in German East Africa - today's Tanzania - the institution is finally coming to terms with its colonial past.
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