With 33,949 additional cases in 24 hours, Germany recorded a record number of new coronavirus infections on Thursday, announced the Robert Koch health watch institute.
The previous record was reached on December 18, 2020, with 33,777 new infections.
” The situation is serious “
In total, more than 4.6 million people have been infected since the start of the epidemic by the new coronavirus in Germany, hit by a fourth “massive” wave affecting mainly the unvaccinated, according to the government of Angela Merkel . Germany has also recorded an average of 19,702 daily cases over the last 7 days, a number that had not been reached since the end of April. The absolute record of daily cases averaged over seven days is 25,524, during the week of December 16 to 22, 2020. Some 165 new deaths in 24 hours were also recorded Thursday by the institute, bringing the total number of death of the novel coronavirus in Germany at 96,192.
The incidence rate in Germany reached 154.5 on Thursday, with peaks in Länder of the former GDR such as Saxony (336.4) or Thuringia (357.4). “The situation is serious”, commented on the public channel ZDF Helge Braun, right-hand man of Angela Merkel in the chancellery. “We are already seeing a massive load (in hospitals) in Thuringia and Saxony”, two particularly affected regions. “The important thing is that the citizens understand that winter will unfortunately be problematic again”, added this trained doctor, calling on the Germans to “be careful”.
Return of “a certain recklessness”
Health ministers from the German federal government and regions are meeting Thursday and Friday in Lindau and may decide on further restrictive measures. But the resumption of the epidemic is taking place in Germany in a complicated political context, with a government reduced since the last legislative elections to deal with current affairs, pending the outcome of ongoing negotiations for a new coalition between social workers. -Democrats, Greens and Liberals.
The outgoing chancellor declared this weekend “very worried” about the evolution of the pandemic, saying in particular “very saddened” by the high number of people over 60 years unvaccinated and regretting the return “of a certain recklessness ”. The Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, called on all the regions, competent for health issues, to toughen the rules for the unvaccinated by preventing them from entering certain public places or by requiring an expensive PCR test. Some, such as Saxony (East) or Baden-Württemberg (South-West), have implemented such measures or are about to do so.