(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s fourth Covid-19 wave is hitting Europe’s biggest economy with full force and there’s no sign of record infections easing anytime soon, according to the country’s top health officials.
Some hospitals are already overwhelmed with patients, and efforts to lift Germany’s relatively low vaccination rate beyond 70% won’t bring relief for weeks at the earliest, Lothar Wieler, the head of the RKI public-health institute, said Friday in Berlin. That’s forcing officials in coronavirus hotspots to revisit some restrictions and testing strategies deployed last winter.
“The situation is serious,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a news conference with Wieler, painting a grim picture of the situation heading into winter. “We have to do everything necessary to break this dynamic or it will be a bitter December for the whole country.”
Germany is facing an alarming escalation in Covid infections, with new daily cases surging past 50,000 for the first time this week and hospitals in the worst-affected states of Bavaria, Thuringia and Saxony under severe pressure.
Based on experience, it’s clear that of the record 50,000 new cases registered on Thursday, about 350 will end up in intensive care, and some 200 of those will probably die, Wieler said. The RKI reported another 48,640 cases on Friday.
Both officials said Germany quickly needs to accelerate its stuttering vaccination campaign -- getting holdouts to receive their first shots and injecting boosters in tens of millions of others.
Nearly 18 million Germans age 12 and up still haven’t been fully vaccinated, according to the health ministry. That’s one of western Europe’s worst performances, with France already at almost 78% fully inoculated, and Italy at nearly 75%, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.
The German holdouts include 3.5 million people age 60 and up, or about 14% of that bracket deemed at high-risk.
In more positive news, Spahn said he expects European regulators to clear Covid shots for children aged between five and 11 in the next four to six weeks.
Germany’s political will for robust action appears limited, and has been complicated by the process of installing a new government following September’s national election.
Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, who aims to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel early next month, said Thursday that Germany needs to be “winter-proofed” against the disease, but that it will be mostly up to state governments to decide which measures and restrictions are needed in their region.
Merkel has voiced opposition to the incoming coalition parties’ decision to allow a nationwide emergency law to lapse on Nov. 25. That move would effectively rule out national lockdowns and school closures, although Spahn said they should still be considered on a regional basis if needed.
States will have more leeway to impose measures such as allowing only vaccinated and recovered citizens into shops and restaurants. The Free Democrats, who will likely be part of the next government along with Scholz’s SPD and the Greens, have opposed the emergency legislation and blanket lockdowns.
Big events should be canceled or avoided where possible, and people should avoid unnecessary contacts, the RKI said in its weekly report published Thursday.
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