Germany pledges €50 million per year to tackle Long Covid

The initiative to tackle “post-infectious diseases” was introduced on Wednesday by Health Minister of Germany Nina Warken and Research Minister Dorothee Bär.

Symptoms of Long Covid include severe fatigue and reduced stamina over an extended period of time.

The condition, which emerged during the coronavirus pandemic, is still poorly understood, with no cure yet available.

Warken said the aim of the new initiative is to help those affected by Long Covid “in their everyday lives, to support them, to raise awareness among doctors and, where possible, to approve drugs that already exist for other diseases.”

Doctors and researchers are to be brought together to combat the condition, she said. In addition, the initiative is set to create more outpatient clinics, “where help can be provided quickly and close to home.”

One in seven children in Germany at risk of poverty

One in seven children in Germany were at risk of poverty last year, official figures showed.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, 2.2 million children and young people under the age of 18, accounting for 15.2 percent of the age group, were at risk of poverty in 2024.

While the figure rose from 14% in the previous year, Germany remains better off that the European average of 19.3 percent.

Compared to the total population (15.5 percent), children and young people are slightly less likely to be at risk of poverty.

The statistical term covers people who have less than 60 percent of the median “net equivalent income.”

This is a weighted per capita income that also takes into account factors such as household size.

In 2024, the threshold for a single person was €1,381 ($1,602) per month.

A single-parent household with a child under the age of 14 is considered at risk if it has a net income of less than €1,795 per month.

Households with two adults and two children under the age of 14 were at risk of poverty if their net income was below €2,900.