Covid-19: record of contaminations in Germany, faced with a violent epidemic wave – LCI

The return of the health crisis seems to come at the worst time. As Germany tries to ensure its political transition and as negotiations between the three parties of the coalition to succeed Angela Merkel continue, the country is facing a massive resurgence of the epidemic that it had to badly to contain.

In one week, the record for the number of new cases recorded in 24 hours has been broken successively three times in just seven days, now exceeding the threshold of 50,000 cases, never crossed so far in the country since the start of the pandemic.

As a result, the seven-day incidence rate now stands at 249.1. The situations are particularly alarming in the Länder of Saxony (521), Thuringia (469.2) or Bavaria (427). The 24-hour death toll is also climbing, rising to 235 on Thursday.

Pressure is also increasing on hospital care units. This has forced the country to start transfers of patients from the most affected regions, especially in the east of the country, which is more resistant to vaccination, to regions where the epidemic situation is still under control.

This outbreak is attributed in particular to the relatively low vaccination rate of the population in Germany. A little more than 67% of Germans are vaccinated, against a vaccination rate of 75% in France. The Minister of Health Jens Spahn had also recently qualified this new infectious wave of “pandemic of the unvaccinated”.

Wednesday, Angela Merkel ruled “dramatic” the resumption of infections in the country. She urged to take urgent action. His room for maneuver is limited, however, as his team is only responsible for dealing with current affairs before a new coalition is formed.

However, several particularly affected states have started to respond by introducing new restrictions on unvaccinated people. As of Monday, Berlin will deny them access in particular to restaurants without a terrace, bars, sports halls and hairdressing salons. This type of device has already entered into force this week in Saxony, a state-region located in the former GDR where the vaccination rate is much lower than the national average.

In addition, the SPD, environmentalists and liberals, the three parties led to form the future government coalition in December, must present Thursday morning national proposals to fight against this resurgence of the epidemic. In particular, they demand a generalization of the exclusion of unvaccinated people from certain indoor events, stricter prevention measures in the workplace and the possibility of requiring PCR tests instead of rapid tests.

New partners in the coalition are also keen to reintroduce the free coronavirus test, which was scrapped last month. On the other hand, they ruled out imposing compulsory vaccination against Covid-19 and confinement at the federal level. These proposals will be considered by the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament this week. They are expected to come into effect at the end of the month.