Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) can imagine a new lockdown to break the fourth corona wave.

"We are in a situation where we shouldn't rule anything out," said Spahn on Friday in Berlin when asked whether Germany could shut down all public life again, as Austria announced.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Spahn spoke of a "national emergency that also needs a joint national effort." The number of infections continues to increase, the intensive care units in some parts of the country are at their limits, and the death rate is again "sadly high". Due to the delta variant and the “too large number of unvaccinated people”, Germany is “again in a difficult, if not the most difficult, situation in this pandemic”. It was "five past twelve," warned Spahn.

At a press conference, he and the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, appealed to citizens to get a basic immunization and a third vaccination (boost) in order to protect themselves and others against the virus and against serious illnesses.

However, the two agreed that in view of the rapid progress of the pandemic, only consistent contact restrictions as well as tests and access controls according to the 2-G or 2-G plus principle could prevent the further rapid spread of the virus.

The reason for this is that the vaccination only starts to work after a few weeks.

“The truth is: with vaccinations alone, with boosters, we will no longer achieve the breaking of the wave that we need now in the short term.

So we need measures to restrict contact, ”said Spahn.

Spahn: Unvaccinated most of our problem

The acting minister welcomed the fact that with the Prime Minister's Conference on Thursday and with the new corona regulations adopted in the Bundestag, such as the amended Infection Protection Act, graduated but uniform rules for combating epidemics would be put into effect, including a "lockdown for unvaccinated people".

Immunized people could also become infected, fall ill and spread the virus, but to a much lesser extent than unvaccinated people.

The relatively much smaller group of these 15 million unvaccinated adults “makes up most of our problem.

That's just the truth. "

Regarding the instruments used in the fight against the pandemic, Spahn said: "Now it is important to implement this consistently and, above all, to consistently monitor that the measures are being followed," warned the politician. Strictly following the 2-G-Plus rules could reduce the R-value - the measure of the spread of the infection - by 0.5 points. It is currently 1.1. After the decrease, it would be less than one, which would reduce the number of new infections. 2-G-Plus could therefore make a “pretty decisive difference”.

He drew attention to the fact that more and more Covid-19 patients had to be transferred from one hospital to another because there was a lack of intensive care capacities.

In Munich, for example, only three percent of the beds are still free, which is "practically nothing".

In Germany there are many wards with only 15 intensive care beds, even if ten percent of them were free, that would only be enough for a new admission.

"A heart attack, an unforeseen situation, and it will be very, very difficult," said Spahn.

Germany is heading towards a situation in which, for the first time, a large number of sick people would have to be relocated across regions, "possibly also to neighboring countries".