The acting German Chancellor warns of the seriousness of the situation as the country exceeds 75,000 cases a day and reaches 100,000 deaths
Germany continues to overcome negative heights in the coronavirus pandemic and it is urgent to put a stop to it. This was made clear yesterday by the acting chancellor, Angela Merkel, warning that “every day counts.” “We need additional restrictions,” he told his successor at the head of the Government, Olaf Scholz, while unveiling a new absolute record of infections with 75,962 new cases in the last 24 hours. It is the first time that 70,000 infections have been exceeded in one day. The incidence rate also reached a new mark with 419.7 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in a week compared to 404.5 on Wednesday.
For Merkel, the day was “a sad day.” Especially because the number of deaths from the disease exceeded the 100,000 barrier for the first time after adding another 351 deaths this Thursday, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), responsible for coordinating the fight against covid-19. The curve in the infection graph has been pointing upwards for 18 days in a row and at the highest levels since the beginning of the pandemic almost two years ago.
“The situation is still too serious, because we are still in a phase of exponential growth and because the cases that are falling ill today will be part of intensive care patients in 10 or 14 days,” said Merkel, who was willing to talk with Scholz and the leaders of his coalition, the Greens and the liberals of the FDP, due to the gravity of the situation. “We have to be very careful to make sure our hospitals are not overwhelmed,” he said.
The RKI stressed, however, that the worst moments were experienced last winter with lower incidence rates and a lower number of daily infections. At that time, up to 1,000 people died a day in Germany. The vaccination campaign has reduced the serious development of infections in those infected, especially among the oldest and most vulnerable. Last Christmas, 6% of those infected were admitted to intensive care and now they are only 0.8%, according to the statistician Reinhard Busse of the Technical University of Berlin.
Boost vaccination
To keep the death rate of covid-19 low, it is necessary to maximize vaccination, otherwise the country will add “another 100,000 deaths,” warned Christian Drosten, head of the virology department of the Charité university hospital in Berlin, who he commented that this is a “prudent calculation”. Less than 70% of adults complete the pattern in Germany, where there is a strong movement of skeptics. More and more German politicians are advocating the mandatory injection for the entire population to effectively stop the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, and faced with the threat of collapse of hospitals in the regions due to the fourth wave of the epidemic, this Thursday began the transfer of patients in serious condition from Thuringia to the federal states in the north.
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