"Fourth wave".
"Massive".
From unvaccinated people.
This is what Germany is facing, according to the Minister of Health Jens Spahn, who called on Wednesday for a tightening of measures to contain the contamination with Covid.
"We are currently experiencing a pandemic mainly unvaccinated and it is massive", the country is hit "head-on", he hammered at a press conference, stressing that many, including him had believed, wrongly, that the virus was under control.
"The fourth wave of the pandemic is unfortunately developing as we feared because the number of vaccinated is not sufficient", added to the side of the minister the president of the institute of health watch Robert Koch (RKI), Lothar Wieler . This Wednesday, the RKI reported more than 20,000 new contaminations in 24 hours, and 194 deaths. Hospitalizations of patients with Covid increased by 40% in the space of a week, according to the Society of German Hospitals. In intensive care, where beds are starting to run out again, the increase is 15%.
Chancellor in charge of current affairs until the Social Democrats reach a government deal with the Greens and the Liberals, Angela Merkel expressed her concern over the weekend.
She said she was "very saddened" that "two to three million Germans over the age of 60 are still not vaccinated" and pointed to a "certain recklessness".
An insufficient number of third doses administered
If he regretted that restaurants or theaters do not sufficiently apply the rules of access in public places, Lothar Wieler has said that their respect would not be enough.
Minister Spahn thus 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 a PCR test, which costs around 80 euros. in Germany.
Saxony, to the east, or Baden-Württemberg, bordering France, are about to implement such measures, Bavaria has already done so.
"It is not a question of harassment" against the unvaccinated, but "to avoid a saturation of the health system", insisted the minister.
A poll commissioned by the Ministry of Health recently revealed that 65% of unvaccinated people polled “under no circumstances” want the vaccine.
23% said they were “unwilling”.
The Minister of Health also again pleaded for an acceleration and generalization of booster vaccinations, currently recommended for those over 70 years old by the vaccination commission and for the staff of retirement homes, six months after the first vaccination.
Only two million people received their third dose, "not enough", lamented the minister.