Germany Urges Widespread Boosters to Counter Record Covid Cases

(Bloomberg) -- Germany is pushing for Covid-19 booster shots for all adults, the latest effort to control a record surge in infections that’s threatening to overwhelm hospitals in some hot spots this winter.

“We need more speed with these boosters,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday at a news conference. Bolstering protection after six months of being fully inoculated “should be the rule, not the exception,” he said after two days of talks with regional counterparts.

Europe’s largest economy reported record Covid-19 infections for a second straight day. Spahn has called the current surge a “massive pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Germany’s immunization rates have stalled, with about a third of the population still have yet to receive a shot. 

Amid resistance to vaccines and renewed restrictions, authorities have little recourse but to push for greater protection for those willing to role up their sleeves. The push from the government draws on the experience of Israel, where comprehensive boosting this summer smothered a Covid wave and infections have steadily been falling for months.

In Germany, some overwhelmed hospitals are already moving intensive-care patients to other regions. The contagion rate on Friday exceeded the peak reached during the previous wave in the spring, according to data from the RKI public-health institute.

“The fourth wave is here with full force,” Spahn said. “It’s about breaking this wave.”

The situation is similar across Europe, where infections are surging as restrictions ease and colder weather forces people indoors. The spread comes despite an abundance of vaccines and should be a warning for the world, a World Health Organization official said Thursday.

Just under 67% of Germans were fully vaccinated as of Thursday. Some 16 million Germans who are eligible for a Covid shot have opted not to get one, and 3 million of those are at least 60 years old, Spahn said this week. 

Germany’s independent vaccine commission has until now only recommended boosters for those 70 years old and up, along with healthcare workers and people with weakened immune systems. Spahn has repeatedly called for widening that pool.

The European Medicines Agency has cleared boosters for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for everyone 18 and up, provided at least six months have passed since the last shot. It left decisions on boosting up to individual countries.

Germany’s response risks being complicated by its impending change of power. A new administration remains weeks away amid talks to form a three-party ruling coalition under Social Democrat Olaf Scholz.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who continues to serve in a caretaker capacity until a new government is sworn in, has expressed deep concern about the course of the pandemic, but has limited authority to impose new measures.

The new parliament is allowing the government’s emergency powers to lapse later this month and is planning to replace it with a watered-down framework that effectively rules out another lockdown.

The infection rate in Saxony -- the German state with one of the worst outbreaks -- is ten times higher among non-vaccinated people, Michael Kretschmer, the state’s premier, said Friday. He warned that restrictions may need to be reimposed if trends continue.

“All alarm signals are showing red,” he said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. “Urgent action is needed.” 

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.