Germany on Thursday surpassed the tragic milestone of 100,000 deaths due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
According to data released daily by the country’s federal epidemiological surveillance agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), another 351 patients died in the past 24 hours due to complications of COVID-19, with the total death toll reaching 100,119.
During the same period, 75,961 cases of SARS-CoV-2 were confirmed, an unprecedented number, which breaks the record of the previous one (66,884), with the total number of registered infections now reaching 8,573,756. In the larger European economy, there are growing fears that hospitals are threatened with saturation.
The resurgence of the pandemic puts the new governing coalition, which will take the helm of the country in December, in a difficult position before it even takes office.
Hospitals in some states are already facing “acute overcrowding”, which makes it necessary to transport patients elsewhere, Gernot Marx, president of the German Federation of Intensive Care, warned on Monday.
The seven-day incidence index reached 419.7 cases, a level that is also unprecedented. In many areas, severely restrictive measures have been put in place to stem the so-called fourth wave of the pandemic, the most severe in the country.
About 69% of the German population is fully vaccinated, significantly lower than in other European countries, such as France (75%).
“The situation is serious,” Olaf Solz, the Social Democrat who will take over as the new chancellor and leader of a coalition with the Greens and the FDP liberals, admitted on Wednesday. He promised to “do everything” to deal with the health crisis.
The new governing coalition, however, seems to reject, at least directly, the idea of ​​a national lockdown, preferring to expand the use of sanitary passes, especially in transport, and impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, for example, on their access to reception areas. public.
Germany must “study” the possible “extension” of compulsory vaccination, which is already in force in the military and will soon be mandatory for health professionals, according to Mr. Soltz. One billion euros will also be released for medical and nursing staff.
The outgoing government under Angela Merkel yesterday, until April 2022, extended state aid to companies affected by closures or reduction of their turnover, as well as the subsidy of part-time work, or part-time unemployment.
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