A health worker cares for a Covid-19 patient in the ICU ward of Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart, Germany, on Tuesday, January 12, 2021. Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Germany is facing closure measures take in late March if the authorities do not. they contain a rapidly spreading variant of the coronavirus.
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LONDON – German health authorities are concerned about the growing coronavirus infection in the country and have said a national shutdown is needed to end the ongoing third wave.
Germany has been facing high rates of covid infection since last October and, despite the improvement in February, the number of new cases has been rising since the end of March.
“Many citizens recognize the need to break this wave with additional measures and most are in favor of stricter rules. It needs a closure to break the current wave,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn told a news conference on Friday .
This third wave of coronavirus is putting pressure on the country’s healthcare system at a time when regional and federal governments are considering the right steps to take.
“The number of patients in intensive care is rising too fast. Doctors and nurses have been constantly stressed for months and rightly sound the alarm,” Spahn said.
“We need to break the third wave as quickly as possible. That means reducing contacts and reducing mobility. That’s the only way to avoid further increases.”
The country reported more than 30,000 new Covid cases on Wednesday and about 26,000 on Thursday.
German officials have been divided over the proper approach to dealing with rising cases, while citizens have been frustrated with the different arrangements between various regions.
But reports surfaced on Friday that Chancellor Angela Merkel was willing to impose nationwide measures and effectively take control of regional leadership. Merkel has previously said that Germany needed a tougher and more uniform approach across the country.
Speaking to CNBC earlier this week, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said: “If we could take similar measures everywhere, that would help a lot and make it more understandable.”
It comes when the German health authorities are pushing for a rise in vaccines in the country, which has already begun to bear fruit. On Thursday, daily inoculation approached 720,000 compared to about 317,000 a week ago, according to health ministry data.
“I think we’re going to get to a situation where, by the end of this month, there will be 4 to 5 million doses a week,” Scholz told CNBC.
Sputnik V
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, the health minister confirmed that contractual negotiations are now underway to acquire the vaccine developed by Russia’s Sputnik V, according to Reuters. Spahn added, however, that there is a question about whether these vaccines would be available in the coming months.
The European Medicines Agency began evaluating the Russian feature in early March and will decide whether to recommend its use in all 27 EU member states. Although the regulator uses an urgent method to check the effectiveness of Sputnik V, it is unclear when it could get final approval.
German authorities have previously said they would consider using the Russian vaccine if the EMA concluded that the shot was effective in preventing the Covid-19 virus.