German Health Minister Jens Span on Saturday called on his country’s citizens to intensify vaccination against Covid-19, warning that otherwise the health care system could experience overcrowding at the end of the year.
In Germany, the vaccination process has been completed for 50.9 million people, or more than 61% of the country’s population, but this figure is lower than in other European countries, and vaccination rates have been declining in recent weeks and the number of new infections is rising.
As the minister told the Hannoverische Zeitung, at least five million more people in Germany need to be vaccinated “to keep autumn and winter safe”.
“The number of people vaccinated is too small to prevent congestion in the healthcare system,” he said, adding that currently 90% of patients admitted to hospital intensive care units have not been vaccinated.
Berlin virologist Christian Drosten has also warned that “waiting for a carefree autumn is a risky idea” and admitted that Germany may have to impose new restrictions if the morbidity continues to rise.
According to him, the Germans underestimate the importance of vaccination, because the phases of the pandemic in Germany so far have not been as devastating as in other European countries.
According to the German Institute for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Koha Institute (RKI), Covid-19 has claimed 92,325 lives in Germany. By comparison, the number of victims in the United Kingdom is over 133,000, in France 115,000 and in Italy around 129,000 have died from Covid-19.
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