The Robert Koch Institute said 294 more people died in
Germany of COVID-19 in the last day, bringing the country’s pandemic death toll
to 98,274. The number of infections recorded since the start of the pandemic
has reached almost 5.13 million.
“The current pandemic situation in Germany is dramatic, I
can’t say it any other way,” outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “The
fourth wave is hitting our country with full force.”
The World Health Organization on Tuesday also cited Germany,
along with Russia and Britain, as the countries with the most new cases in
Europe.
The three political parties negotiating to form Germany’s
next government have agreed on a series of public health measures for
parliament to debate on Thursday, German news agency dpa reported.
They include stricter anti-virus workplace rules and sharply
increasing the penalties for forging vaccine passports or test certificates to
allow up to five years in prison for professional gangs selling such fakes,
according to dpa. Employees would also get the right to work from home again,
where possible.
Infections have shot up in recent weeks, particularly among
unvaccinated people, with southern and eastern Germany the hardest hit.
The district of Meissen, near Dresden, reported almost 1,305
new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past week. Saxony state, where Meissen
is located, plans to introduce new social distancing rules and to require
people to show vaccine passports or recovery certificates to enter all stores
except supermarkets and pharmacies.
Saxony has the lowest vaccination rate in Germany, with
57.6% of the population fully vaccinated compared to the national average of
67.7%
Merkel plans to meet Thursday with the governors of
Germany’s 16 states to coordinate the country’s response to the latest surge in
infections.
“The meeting is overdue,” Merkel said, adding that she hoped
officials would agree on a threshold for imposing additional measures that
takes into account how many COVID-19 patients are hospitalized.
“It would be a disaster to act only when the intensive care
units are full, because then it would be too late,” she said in a speech to
mayors from across Germany.
Her likely successor, current Finance Minister Olaf Scholz
of the center-left Social Democrats, urged people who haven’t been vaccinated
yet to do so.
“That’s the best protection against infection,” he told
reporters. “We can see that, right now, in intensive care units.”
German Health Minister Jens Spahn has called on doctors not
to be too strict about waiting at least six months before giving patients
vaccine booster shots.
Meanwhile, authorities in neighboring Austria have said
travelers will need to show a negative PCR test upon entering the country;
previously, the cheaper lateral flow tests were allowed. The Alpine nation on
Monday implemented a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people who haven’t
recently had COVID-19. -AP
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