Germans should avoid large gatherings amid a record surge in coronavirus infections, the country's health agency chief said Friday, adding that he himself would be skipping next month's New Year's parties, report agencies.
"It's five minutes past midnight," warned Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), as the nation braces for new restrictions to contain a ferocious fourth Covid wave.
Germany registered more than 48,000 new cases over the past 24 hours, RKI data showed, a day after breaching the 50,000 mark for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
The weekly infection rate has soared to an all-time high of 263.7 per 100,000 people, and intensive care beds are filling up rapidly.
Several German cities kicked off months-long carnival celebrations on Thursday, with revellers required to prove they are fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid before entering the party zones.
The country's much-loved Christmas market season is also on its way.
But Wieler said large gatherings "must be viewed very critically" and in some situations "clearly should be cancelled".
Indoor celebrations especially can act as superspreader events "and everyone must really think about whether they want to expose themselves to that risk," he told reporters in Berlin.
"I personally won't be attending New Year's Eve parties. But I urge people not to wait until then to think about their actions."
Germany's Covid surge has been blamed on a relatively low vaccination rate, with just over 67 percent of the population of some 83 million people fully inoculated.
Other European nations are battling similar Covid resurgences.
Austria has introduced rules that bar unvaccinated people from certain events and indoor venues. The Netherlands is planning a renewed "partial lockdown" as cases hit record levels.
Health Minister Jens Spahn, speaking alongside Wieler, said the situation in Germany "is serious".
He recommended that large gatherings be made safer by requiring the vaccinated and recovered to test negative before taking part, while barring the unvaccinated altogether -- a system dubbed "2G Plus" in Germany.
Germany will re-introduce free rapid coronavirus testing for all in coming days, he said.
The federal government and leaders of Germany's 16 regional states are meeting next Thursday to discuss joint measures to combat the pandemic, following criticisms of a confusing patchwork of different restrictions emerging.
Among the proposed measures are stricter curbs on the unvaccinated, for instance by excluding them from indoor dining or venues such as cinemas, gyms and theatres -- which some states are already doing.
"We must do everything needed to break the current trend," Spahn said.
"Otherwise the nation will experience a bitter December."
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 5,078,208 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Friday.
At least 251,869,080 cases of coronavirus have been registered. The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.
The figures are based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country.
They exclude revisions made by other statistical organisations, which show that the number of deaths is much higher.
The World Health Organization estimates that the pandemic's overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records, due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.
A large number of the less severe or asymptomatic cases also remain undetected, despite intensified testing in many countries.
On Thursday, 7,136 new deaths and 512,227 new cases were recorded worldwide.
Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were Russia with 1,235 new deaths, followed by United States with 815 and Ukraine with 750.
The United States is the worst-affected country with 759,677 deaths from 46,852,796 cases.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 610,224 deaths from 21,924,598 cases, India with 462,690 deaths from 34,414,186 cases, Mexico with 290,630 deaths from 3,838,308 cases, and Russia with 252,926 deaths from 8,992,595 cases.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Peru with 608 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Bulgaria with 371, Bosnia-Herzegovina with 363, Republic of North Macedonia with 350, Montenegro with 348, Hungary with 329 and Czech Republic with 293.
Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 1,528,464 deaths from 46,213,403 cases, Europe 1,445,374 deaths from 77,766,952 infections, and Asia 881,118 deaths from 56,370,820 cases.
The United States and Canada has reported 788,935 deaths from 48,594,127 cases, Africa 220,222 deaths from 8,552,836 cases, Middle East 211,106 deaths from 14,092,793 cases, and Oceania 2,989 deaths from 278,150 cases.
As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day's tallies.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
