SEDAN
Germany is expected to see a sharp increase in the number of severe Covid-19 patients in the next three weeks, acting Health Minister Jens Spahn warned on Friday.
Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Spahn said the newly agreed measures will only show their effect after a few weeks, as the upward trend in hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions continues.
“Most likely, the scenario in intensive care facilities will reach a tragic peak around Christmas,” he said, adding that many hospitals in coronavirus hotspots are already battered and running out of intensive care beds.
He suggested citizens respect hygiene and social distancing rules and unnecessary contact with others to curb the spread of the virus.
Many hospitals are operating lately in crisis mode and have postponed non-critical surgeries, while several hospitals also delayed surgeries for patients with cancer or core diseases.
As of Friday, there were 4,797 critically ill coronavirus patients in the country’s intensive care units, in addition to 2,564 on ventilators, according to the DIVI Association of Emergency Medicine.
The Robert Koch Institute, the national disease agency, showed 74,352 new infections and 390 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours.
According to the institute, around 925,800 people are currently in poor health with COVID-19, an alarming figure that has not been seen in the last three waves of the pandemic.
Dr. Lothar Wieler, director of the institute, said the actual number of active cases may be two to three times higher than that figure, due to undetected or unreported cases.
Germany has noticed an immediate rise in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, as other people spend more time indoors during the colder months and a large portion of the population is still unvaccinated.
The German government’s goal has been to vaccinate at least 75% of the population to prevent an exponential accumulation of new cases over the winter.
But as of Thursday, 57. 2 million people, or 68. 8% of the population, were vaccinated against COVID-19.
Germany’s overall vaccination rate lags behind that of many other EU members, Portugal, Spain, Denmark and Malta combined.