Germany was a Covid ‘poster child.’ Now it’s seeing 50,000 cases a day, prompting a dramatic warning
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Germany was once seen as the poster child of how to deal with the coronavirus. Now, it’s recording close to 50,000 new Covid cases a day, prompting a dire warning of a dramatic rise in fatalities from one expert.
Germany is in the midst of what has been described as a fourth wave of Covid, as the delta variant spreads as the weather gets colder. Thursday marks the fourth day in a row that it has posted a fresh daily high, Reuters noted, with the number of new cases coming in at 50,196.
Data from the country’s public health body, the Robert Koch Institute, showed that Germany’s total number of cases has now hit 4.89 million and that the number of fatalities stands at 97,198.
The data is worrying Germany’s officials and public health experts.Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly called for an urgent meeting with state premiers to discuss the country’s response to the Covid crisis. Her chief spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday that the virus was “spreading dramatically” and that a “quick and unified response” was required.
Leading German virologist Christian Drosten called for urgent action on Tuesday, warning that the country could witness as many as 100,000 more deaths from the virus if nothing was done to tackle the spread of the virus.
Speaking on the NDR podcast, Drosten said that 100,000 deaths was a “conservative estimate” and that “we have a real emergency situation at the moment” with millions of Germans still unvaccinated.
Covid vaccines have been clinically proven to greatly reduce the risk of severe infection, hospitalization and death caused by the virus, although vaccine immunity is known to wane after six months and there have been some “breakthrough” infections among the vaccinated.
Earlier this week, German lawmakers, who are focused on coalition talks to form a new government after September’s inconclusive election, proposed a draft law set to be discussed in the German Bundestag, or parliament, Thursday.
It includes plans to reintroduce free Covid-19 testing (which was ended recently) and mandatory daily testing for employees and visitors of care homes, among other measures, reported by Deutsche Welle.
On the whole, lawmakers are generally against imposing a new lockdown but some states (which are allowed to set their own restrictions) have reintroduced some Covid rules and restrictions.
News credit : Holly Ellyatt/CNBC
