“Right now, we’re seeing a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Spahn told Welt on Wednesday. He said hospitals could become overrun in the autumn and winter months because so many people in Germany are still not vaccinated against Covid-19.
He urged people eligible for the vaccine to get their jabs as soon as possible.
“We have fulfilled our promise,” said Spahn. “The vaccine doses are there to get us safely through autumn and winter.”
Vaccinations in Germany have plateaued in recent weeks, raising concerns that the country won’t be able to get through the cooler months unscathed.
Just over 64 percent of people in Germany have received at least one jab and 59.2 percent are fully vaccinated.
READ ALSO: Fourth wave – What we know about Germany’s spike in Covid cases
Spahn said the federal and state governments are discussing new benchmarks to assess the Covid situation in Germany.
As The Local reported, Spahn plans to make the number of hospital admissions the decisive factor when assessing future Covid measures – rather than the incidence rate of infections.
READ ALSO: German Health Minister says focus must be on Covid hospital admissions when deciding factors
He said Germany could assess the situation by comparing it to the “very heavy workload” in hospitals last winter.
Spahn also reiterated that there would be no strict lockdown restrictions imposed on people who are vaccinated.
“For vaccinated and recovered people, there will be no further restrictions,” said Spahn. “No curfews, no contact restrictions, no closures.” That, he said, is a very important signal.
“We are vaccinating Germany back to freedom,” said Spahn. “That’s the real message now for autumn and winter.”
Some critics have questioned if the German government’s insistence on saying there will be no tough Covid measures for vaccinated people is down to the fact that there’s a federal election on September 26th – and the Christian Democrats want to keep voters on their side.
German states on Monday brought in uniform rules for a ‘Covid health pass’ system restricting access to most public indoor spaces to those who are fully vaccinated, have recovered from Covid or to those who have tested negatively for the virus.
READ ALSO: Germany’s 16 states bring in uniform Covid-19 rules
Please whitelist us to continue reading.
I wonder if the Minister is not bending the figures? This obsession with vaccination combined with completely ignoring cheap safe effective medicines is bizarre. If you cross the border into the Czech Republic Ivermectin is a recognized treatment. In India the states that use have seen a spectacular fall in mortality. Sooner or later the governments will have to accept the mounting evidence worldwide that existing medicines work, especially if taken early, and their use should be encouraged.
Of course less money will be made all round but we might actually see an end to the Corona follies and hospitals will no longer be overrun – at least not with Covid patients. If of course Germany follows France drastically cutting intensive care bed numbers, as urged by Brussels, then they will be over run with other illnesses.