GERMANY: COVID-19 SITUATION “MORE SERIOUS THAN EVER”, SAYS HEALTH MINISTER

Sat 27 November 2021:

As Germany is hit by the fourth COVID-19 wave, the situation in the country is “more serious than ever,” acting Minister of Health Jens Spahn told journalists here on Friday.

“The situation is dramatically serious, more serious than it’s been at any point in the pandemic,” Spahn said, stressing that “the wake-up call has still not reached everyone in Germany.” The number of daily COVID-19 infections reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases once again set a new record of 76,414 on Friday, an increase of more than 23,400 over last week’s figure.

“Only one thing will make a decisive difference in the short term: the number of contacts must be reduced, significantly,” he said, recalling that several social activities have already been restricted to vaccinated, recovered or tested people.

The number of patients in intensive care has been “steeply rising” in all of Germany’s Federal states, RKI President Lothar Wieler said at the press conference. Elective procedures have been reduced in the vast majority of the country’s hospitals, he said.

On Friday the country’s intensive care units reported 4,326 COVID-19 patients, 124 more than a day earlier.

Germany’s Air Force on Friday began to help transfer COVID-19 patients in intensive care from overburdened hospitals to less afflicted regions.

To curb the fourth COVID-19 wave, the country has recently ramped up its COVID-19 measures and introduced the so-called 3g rule, which stands for geimpft, getestet, genesen (vaccinated, tested, recovered) and applies in the workplace and on public transport.

However, 63 percent of German citizens believe that not enough is being done to fight COVID-19, according to a Politbarometer survey published by public broadcaster ZDF on Friday.

Despite multiple vaccines being widely available, the country’s vaccination campaign has slowed down. Germany’s vaccination rate has only increased by around two percentage points since the end of October and stood at 68.3 percent as of Thursday, according to the RKI.

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