Germany declares that Covid has begun the “third wave”; Italy established the closing of Easter

LONDON – The head of the German public health agency warned on Friday that a third wave of coronavirus infections has already begun.

It comes at a time when the country has begun to gradually relax blocking restrictions, amid a government-led effort to speed up the implementation of vaccination to as many adults as possible.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had previously warned that the country could get caught in a third wave of infections if restrictive public health measures were lifted too quickly.

Meanwhile, Italy would have to impose another near-national shutdown over the Easter weekend in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

The measure, which is expected to be signed into law on Friday, comes just over a year after it became the first country in the world to impose closure measures at the national level.

“We have clear signs: the third wave in Germany has already begun,” Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, told reporters at a news conference on Friday.

“The virus will not go away, but once we have a basic level of immunity in the population, we will be able to control it,” he added.

Wieler said he was “very concerned” about the public health crisis. He described Germany’s vaccination campaign as a race against a constantly evolving virus, but expressed confidence that the country would be able to control the virus.

Until then, Wieler reaffirmed the importance of people wearing face masks in public and staying at a safe distance from others.

The RKI said on Thursday that the number of confirmed Covid cases over a 24-hour period increased by 14,356, the highest daily count recorded in Germany in the past two weeks. It reflected an increase of 2,444 cases over the previous week.

The recent increase coincides with the spread of a highly infectious variant of the virus first discovered in the UK. The variant, known as B.1.1.7, has been found to account for more than 46% of new infections nationwide.

To date, more than 2.5 million people have hired Covid in Germany, with 73,127 dead, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

The administration of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi held talks with regional governments and local authorities to discuss the imposition of tougher health measures from March 15 to April 6, the Italian news agency reported on Friday. ANSA, which cited unnamed sources.

As part of these measures, Italy is expected to be able to deal with the spread of the virus by placing almost the entire country in its so-called “red zone” from 3 to 5 April, a period that includes Easter Sunday and on Easter Monday.

The red zone is the maximum level of coronavirus system restrictions by levels in Italy. At this level, schools, non-essential shops, restaurants and bars will be closed.

Sardinia, a large Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea, is currently the only region in the white area of ​​the country. This decision, announced on March 1, means that many measures designed to curb the spread of the virus in this area have been removed.

Nationally, the total number of Covid infections in Italy exceeded 3 million last week, largely driven by the rapid spread of variant B.1.1.7. To date, Italy has recorded 3.1 million Covid cases and 101,184 deaths.