German President Issues Pandemic Warning as Omicron Spreads

(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s head of state had little good cheer in his annual Christmas address to the nation, warning that the coronavirus will remain a challenge for Europe’s largest economy.

“The pandemic won’t suddenly be gone one day,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in the text of a speech to be delivered on Saturday. “It will occupy us for a long time to come.” 

The country’s largely ceremonial head of state -- who’s likely to secure a new five-year mandate in February -- reinforced a public call to get inoculated against Covid-19. He also exhorted Germans to rein in festivities and limit social contact to curb an expected exponential rise in new infections from the fast-spreading omicron variant. 

On Thursday, Germany reported almost 3,200 confirmed and suspected cases of the Covid strain after the number tripled last week, according to the RKI public-health institute. One infected 60- to 79-year-old died, marking the first omicron fatality in the country. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz ushered in tighter social-distancing restrictions this week in an effort to head off a wave of new cases. He also set out a target of fully vaccinating 80% of the population, up from 70.7% -- a level that trails other countries in Western Europe. A recent push to administer 30 million doses by the end of the year has mainly been taken up by people seeking booster shots. 

Amid a spate of protests across Germany over pandemic curbs, Steinmeier praised medical researchers and personnel and pushed back against opposition to the government’s measures to control the disease.

“I would like to thank the large -- and often silent -- majority in our country from the bottom of my heart,” said the former Social Democratic foreign minister. “They’ve recognized that now more than ever we depend on each other.”

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