BERLIN (AP) – The rapid rise in coronavirus cases in Germany is likely to mean that everyone in the country who is not vaccinated will have been infected with COVID-19 by the end of winter, and some of them will die, the German warned. Monday the German Minister of Health.
Official figures showed more than 30,000 new confirmed cases in Germany in the previous 24 hours, a 50% increase from the previous week. Hospitals have warned that ICU capacity is almost at its limit and some patients have had to be transferred to distant clinics.
Health Minister Jens Spahn urged Germans to get vaccinated, including booster doses if it has been more than six months since they received their first round of the vaccine, to reduce the risk of serious illness.
“By the end of winter, practically everyone in Germany … will have been vaccinated, recovered or died,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin.
He admitted that some have described his message as cynical. “But it’s true. With the contagious delta variant this is very, very likely and that is why we recommend vaccination so urgently, ”Spahn said.
Germany expects the European Union to authorize COVID-19 vaccines for children between the ages of 5 and 11 by the end of the week, he noted. School-age children have one of the highest infection rates in Germany.
The EU will start distributing adjusted doses for young children on December 20, of which Germany would initially receive 2.4 million doses, Spahn said.
–
