A massive fourth wave.
This is what Germany is going through, which on Thursday recorded a record number of new Covid-19 infections with 50,196 additional cases in 24 hours.
Another sign of the violence of the epidemic wave that is hitting the country, according to the Robert Koch health watch institute.
This is the first time that the threshold of 50,000 new daily cases has been crossed since the start of the pandemic while Germany has chained record numbers of infections in recent days.
The number of deaths in 24 hours rose to 235 Thursday. Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel had judged Wednesday "dramatic" the resumption of infections in the country, particularly notable since October.
Read also Covid-19: record incidence, deaths on the rise ... in Germany, the worrying "pandemic of unvaccinated"
"The pandemic is spreading again in a spectacular way," lamented his spokesperson, calling on the regional authorities, competent in health matters, to take new measures to contain the situation.
Pressure is also increasing on hospital care units.
This outbreak is attributed in particular to the relatively low vaccination rate of the population in Germany.
About 66% of the population of all ages and 77% of the adult population is fully vaccinated in the country, against - respectively - 75% and 86% in France.
Restrictions on the unvaccinated
Several particularly affected states, such as Saxony, Bavaria, and very recently Berlin, have introduced new restrictions targeting unvaccinated people who are the first affected by this rebound in the pandemic.
Thus, as of Monday, Berlin will prohibit unvaccinated people from accessing, in particular, restaurants without a terrace, bars, sports halls and hairdressing salons.
A negative test will no longer allow access to these public places if users are not vaccinated or cannot prove that they are cured of the disease.
Finally, many testimonies report a relaxation of behavior in the country.
According to the managing director of the Federation of Hotels and Restaurants in Berlin, Thomas Lengfelder, the rules are being observed less and less or no longer at all in many establishments.
In total, nearly 4.9 million people have been infected with Covid-19 in Germany since the start of the pandemic.
