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German Health Minister pleads for lockdown ‘to break Covid wave’

Germany's Health Minister Jens Spahn and medical experts have renewed calls for drastic measures to gain control over spiralling coronavirus cases as hospital beds fill up.

Published: 9 April 2021 15:47 CEST
German Health Minister pleads for lockdown 'to break Covid wave'
Health Minister Jens Spahn on Friday. Photo: DPA

“We need a lockdown in order to break this wave,” said Health Minister Spahn, saying that tougher measures could provide a “bridge” to an eventual reopening of public life.

Official figures on Friday showed 25,464 new cases in the past 24 hours, while intensive care doctors warned that hospitals could soon be inundated.

“We are profoundly concerned about the current situation,” said Gernot Marx, president of Germany’s intensive medicine association DIVI.

“We are on the brink of overwhelming our health system,” he added, explaining that Germany currently had only 3,000 free intensive care beds after a “dramatic rise” in admissions in recent weeks.

In an “urgent appeal” to political leaders, he called for a “hard lockdown of two to three weeks”.

READ ALSO: German virologist warns of ‘permanent lockdown’ amid rising Covid infections

The head of the Robert Koch Institute infectious disease agency, Lothar Wieler, also called for tighter measures in the face of a “very serious situation”.

“If we don’t go into lockdown, a lot of people will lose their lives,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, German leaders agreed to tighten the national coronavirus law in a bid to give the federal government powers to enact health measures.

Member comments

  1. THEN DO IT!! All this talk and no action by German politicians has got us to this point. Half measures, pussyfooting, and pandering has us six months lock down. Take responsibility and DO SOMETHING!

  2. Do a 3 weeks lockdown and vaccinate at least 10 million people in these 3 weeks. No point in partial lockdown. Do a complete lockdown and have an opening plan with a high vaccination option.

  3. AGAIN. Closing Shops etc. is not the way. People behave there. It is the visits to other people’s Homes, people hanging out in Parks, Parties at Flats that are the problems. That is what should be monitored & heavily punished.

  4. I thought we have been in a lockdown for months? Doing more of the same and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. That just forces people into smaller spaces and riskier behaviors, and it creates a different set of health and mental issues as people are not getting screenings of treatments for other diseases. The state of Texas has been fully open, no masks are required, and the number of cases has been dropping. Of course the vaccination campaign across the USA has been a lot more successful than on this side of the world.

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HEALTH

Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

It’s back again: amid sinking temperatures, the incidence of Covid-19 has been slowly rising in Germany. But is this enough to merit worrying about the virus?

Published: 20 September 2023 12:05 CEST
Updated: 20 September 2023 22:22 CEST
Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

More people donning face masks in supermarkets, friends cancelling plans last minute due to getting sick with Covid-19. We might have seen some of those familiar reminders recently that the coronavirus is still around, but could there really be a resurgence of the virus like we experienced during the pandemic years?

According to virologists, the answer seems to be ‘maybe’: since July, the number of people newly infected with Covid-19 has been slowly rising from a very low level.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), nine people per 100,000 inhabitants became newly infected in Germany last week. A year ago, there were only around 270 reported cases.

Various Corona variants are currently on the loose in the country. According to the RKI,  the EG.5 (also called Eris) and XBB.1.16 lines were each detected in the week ending September 3rd with a share of just under 23 percent. 

The highly mutated variant BA.2.86 (Pirola), which is currently under observation by the World Health Organisation (WHO), also arrived in the country this week, according to RKI. 

High number of unreported case

The RKI epidemiologists also warned about a high number of unreported cases since hardly any testing is done. They pointed out that almost half of all registered sewage treatment plants report an increasing viral load in wastewater tests.

The number of hospital admissions has also increased slightly, but are still a far cry from the occupation rate amid the pandemic. Last week it was two per 100,000 inhabitants. In the intensive care units, only 1.2 percent of all beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients.

Still, a good three-quarters (76.4 percent) of people in Germany have been vaccinated at least twice and thus have basic immunity, reported RKI. 

Since Monday, doctors’ offices have been vaccinating with the adapted vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer, available to anyone over 12 years old, with a vaccine for small children set to be released the following week and one for those between 5 and 11 to come out October 2nd.

But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has so far only recommended that people over 60 and those with pre-existing conditions get vaccinated.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Who should get a Covid jab this autumn in Germany?

“The pandemic is over, the virus remains,” he said. “We cannot predict the course of coming waves of corona, but it is clear that older people and people with pre-existing conditions remain at higher risk of becoming severely ill from Covid-19”

The RKI also recommended that people with a cold voluntarily wear a mask. Anyone exhibiting cough, cold, sore throat or other symptoms of a respiratory illness should voluntarily stay at home for three to five days and take regular corona self-tests. 

However, further measures such as contact restrictions are not necessary, he said.

One of many diseases

As of this autumn, Covid-19 could be one of many respiratory diseases. As with influenza, there are no longer absolute infection figures for coronavirus.

Saarbrücken pharmacist Thorsten Lehr told German broadcaster ZDF that self-protection through vaccinations, wearing a mask and getting tested when symptoms appear are prerequisites for surviving the Covid autumn well. 

Only a new, more aggressive mutation could completely turn the game around, he added.

On April 7th of this year, Germany removed the last of its over two-year long coronavirus restrictions, including mask-wearing in some public places.

READ ALSO: German doctors recommend Covid-19 self-tests amid new variant

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