Germany battles fourth wave of COVID pandemic amid rising numbers

Germany is preparing for the entry into force of new restrictions to face the fourth wave of the pandemic, which hits the country hard with record levels of incidence and an increase in hospital pressure.

With regard to some of the measures that will take effect next week, there is concern about the difficulties that their implementation may entail.

Such is, for example, the case of the requirement that only people who have been vaccinated, recovered or with a recent negative test can use public transport.

This will imply more frequent controls than is normally done in Germany and, in the face of resistance from part of the population, it is feared that some conflicts will arise.

The legal framework approved last week by the parties of the future government coalition also requires the federal states to impose some measures in accordance with certain parameters of the pandemic such as hospital occupation.

The most important parameter at this point is the weekly incidence of hospitalization per 100,000 inhabitants.

If in a federal state the incidence of hospitalization is above 3, the requirement is that only vaccinated people or those who have overcome the disease have access to bars and restaurants, which is already applied in some states, such as Berlin and Bavaria .

If the hospitalization index is above 6, in addition to being vaccinated or recovered, people who want to enter the premises must present a recent negative test.

According to the latest figures from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) of virology, the incidence of patients admitted to hospitals this Sunday stood at 5.34 per 100,000 inhabitants. The peak in the incidence of hospitalization was reached around Christmas of last year with 15.5 hospitalized patients per 100,000 inhabitants.

However, hospital pressure worries due to the loss of capacity of the ucis due to personnel problems. Currently 14 percent of the beds available in the ucis are occupied with 3,565 patients.

-Incidence of the hike-

Also weekly incidence of infections tends to rise and stood at 372.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, which represents the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic.

A week ago the incidence had been 289 infections per 100,000 inhabitants and a month ago 85.6.

In the last 24 hours, the health offices reported 42,727 new infections compared to 33,498 last week. In addition, there were 75 deaths related to the disease compared to 55 the previous week.

Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 5’354,942 confirmed cases in Germany: 4’626,300 people have overcome the disease and 99,062 have died from causes related to the disease.

67.9% of the population has received the complete vaccine schedule and 70.5% at least the first dose.

Vaccination progress has been slow for months, which is largely due to resistance from part of the population.

A total of 26.7 million people in Germany do not yet have the complete vaccine schedule.

Among them there are 2.1 million who are waiting for the second dose and it is to be expected that all of them will be vaccinated.

However, most of the group does not even have the first dose. A total of 10.4 million are between the ages of 18 and 59 and 2.7 million are older than 60 years.

In these two groups, it is to be assumed that there is active resistance to the vaccine. Another large group is that of children between 0 and 11 years old, for whom there is still no recommendation from the Permanent Commission on Vaccination.

In the age group between 12 and 17 there are 2.2 million unvaccinated people.

To this is added the need to apply the soda of the vaccine to those who have received the second dose five months ago or more, which is already in progress, although with some logistical problems.

Low vaccination figures have led to a discussion about mandatory vaccination. For now, the parties of the future government coalition rule out such a measure for the entire population but not for some sectors.

At the last meeting of heads of regional governments, the regional government was asked to open up this possibility and evaluate its legal viability.