Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "
worried
" about the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany, warning against "a
certain recklessness
".
The current development in hospitals and concerning the number of deaths "
worries me a lot (...) It should worry us all
", declared the Chancellor to the Sunday edition of the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Read alsoCovid-19: "The epidemic resumption is confirmed" in France and continues to accelerate in Europe
While defending the lack of vaccination obligation in force in the country, she said she was "
very saddened
" that "
two to three million Germans over 60 years are still not vaccinated
".
“
It could make a difference, for these people and for society as a whole,
” said Angela Merkel.
The vaccination campaign is stalling
The cases of infections are on the rise in the country with the arrival of autumn: Saturday, the Robert Koch health watch institute (RKI) identified 21,543 new cases in 24 hours and 90 deaths. The incidence of infection climbed to 145.1 per 100,000 population over seven days, from 100,000 a week ago. And the vaccination campaign is stalling: according to the RKI, 55.5 million Germans are completely immune to the virus, or 66.7% of the population.
Several health professionals have reported in recent days a new influx of Covid patients in hospitals, the vast majority of unvaccinated people.
According to the president of the German hospital company Gerald Gass, hospitalizations of patients with Covid increased by 40% in the space of a week.
In intensive care, the increase reaches 15%.
"
If the evolution continues, we will soon have 3,000 patients in intensive care
," he recently warned in an interview with the regional newspaper group
Redaktionsnetzwerks Deutschland
, and this will lead to "
restrictions on the normal functioning
" of the establishments. , such as postponing scheduled operations.
According to a Forsa poll commissioned by the Ministry of Health published on Thursday, convincing those reluctant to the vaccine is not easy.
65% of unvaccinated people surveyed said they did not want
to
receive the vaccine
“
under any circumstances
”, 23% said they were “
unwilling
”.
And 89% of unvaccinated respondents said that the danger of saturation of intensive care in hospitals had no influence on their willingness to be vaccinated.
