GERMANY: Alarm over record cases for 6th straight day

BERLIN • Germany registered a record number of new Covid-19 cases yesterday, propelling the infection rate to a new high for the sixth straight day and raising alarm ahead of plans to lift almost all remaining curbs this weekend.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due to hold talks with regional leaders on pandemic strategy late yesterday, with Russia's war on Ukraine also on the agenda.

While there is little appetite to reimpose nationwide restrictions as long as hospitalisation rates remain in check, some of the 16 state premiers are unhappy with the rapid pace of unwinding. The Lower House of Parliament is due to approve the legislation loosening measures today.

"This is not a step-by-step process. It's simply a leap into the unknown," Bavaria Premier Markus Soeder said yesterday in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio.

Germany began easing Covid-19 curbs last month and most of the remaining measures are due to expire on Sunday. Some states, including the capital Berlin, have said they will keep restrictions in place until the end of this month.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has repeatedly warned against complacency, and said last Sunday that the outbreak could cause "many deaths".

In the 24 hours up till early yesterday, there were almost 300,000 new infections, the most since the pandemic began two years ago, according to data from the RKI public health institute. The seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 people has been climbing since the beginning of this month and is now at 1,651.4, the RKI said.

Germany has not experienced the steep drop in transmissions seen in other countries, such as Britain and the United States. Daily deaths from Covid-19 are still around 250 to 300 people, with another 278 reported yesterday. At the same time, the number of Covid-19 cases in intensive care units is at less than half the level at the end of last year.

The rising infection numbers are partly due to the spread of the highly infectious - but apparently less deadly - BA.2 sub-variant of the Omicron strain. It now accounts for about half the Covid-19 cases in Germany, according to the RKI.

Germany's vaccination campaign has ground to a halt in recent months, and lawmakers in the Bundestag were to debate proposals for introducing mandatory Covid-19 shots.

As at Wednesday, just under 76 per cent of the population were inoculated against the virus, according to Health Ministry data, leaving about 15.6 million people over the age of four without protection.

BLOOMBERG