German Minister of Health Jens Spahn.

-

Michael Kappeler / AP / SIPA

Germany is facing a "very clearly exponential" increase in Covid-19 infections, linked in particular to the spread of the British variant, the vice-president of the Robert-Koch (RKI) health watch institute said on Friday .

"It is quite possible that at Easter we have a situation similar to the one we experienced before Christmas, with a very high number of cases, many serious cases and deaths, and overwhelmed hospitals," warned during 'a Lars Schaade press conference.

"We are in the third wave of the pandemic, the figures are increasing, the proportion of variants is high," added the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn.

Germany has recorded more than 17,000 officially reported cases in twenty-four hours, about 5,000 more than a week ago.

The incidence rate reached 95.6 Friday (against 90 Thursday), very close to the 100 mark supposed to trigger new restrictions.

A meeting Monday between Merkel and the presidents of the Landers

Angela Merkel and the leaders of the 16 Länder will meet on Monday to decide on possible new closures, so the country was able to make some easing in early March.

Germany is counting on the ramp-up of its vaccination campaign to stop this increase.

Vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine will resume this Friday, after four days of interruption.

But "an honest analysis of the situation shows that there are not yet enough vaccines in Europe to stop the third wave by vaccination alone", admitted Jens Spahn.

“Even though deliveries of EU orders are now reliable, it will be several weeks before the at-risk groups are fully vaccinated,” he added.

“Only then will we be able to talk about broader openings in society.

We will therefore still need some resistance, ”explained the Conservative minister.

"You can turn it as you want, we must return to the lockdown," said Karl Lauterbach, health expert of the Social Democratic Party, during this press conference.

Health

Under pressure, Angela Merkel accepts a gradual deconfinement

Society

From Tuesday, a test will have to be carried out to be able to enter Germany from the Moselle

  • Covid 19

  • Confinement

  • World

  • Germany

  • Coronavirus