The Berlin Spectator
Ultimate magazine theme for WordPress.

Germany: New Infections at Highest Level in Months

According to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, 25,464 new Coronavirus infections were registered within the past 24 hours. It is the highest number since January 8th, when the second wave was at its peak.

Berlin, April 9th, 2021. Update: 6:21 p.m. CEDT (The Berlin Spectator) — A few days after Easter, the predictions experts made turned out to be accurate. The number of new Corona infections within 24 hours has not been higher since January 8th. Back then, it stood at 31,894, before it dropped down to 4-digit levels for several weeks. Now, Germany is back at an extremely high level. Far more than 25,000 new cases have been reported since Thursday morning. This development is not really a surprise since it was clear the third Corona wave had not really receded. During the Easter holidays, less patients with symptoms went to doctors, and less health authorities reported their cases.

Tight Situation at Hospitals

The situation at some German hospitals is already tight to critical. In Berlin, the Charité university clinics are switching back into Corona mode, by postponing surgeries. That way, they are making room for the increasing number of Corona patients who need to be treated. For three weeks, the number of infected patients at intensive care units has increased substantially yet again. According to ZDF television, almost all ICU beds for Corona patients at the SRH Clinic in Gera are already occupied.

Germany’s Incidence Number started rising again, after it decreased around Easter. It stands at 110.4 today. Because of the Easter effect, ‘only’ ten out of sixteen federal states in Germany have Incidences above 100. Recently, Thuringia had been above 200. Now, it stands at 186.8. The Incidence levels could rise substantially in the coming days and weeks, along with the number of new Corona infections per day.

Number of Vaccinations Increases

There is good news too. Now that Germany’s general practitioners started vaccinating their patients against Corona, the number of vaccinations per day has almost doubled. On April 6th, some 360,000 vaccine doses were administered. On April 7th, the number jumped to 719,000, according to Health Minister Jens Spahn. It looks like the vaccination campaign in Germany, which had a slow start due to a lack of vaccine in the European Union, is accelerating.

All relevant Corona numbers for Germany, and daily Corona updates, can be found in our Corona chronology.

So is the discussion about an amendment to Germany’s Infection Protection Act. Armin Laschet, the First Minister of the country’s largest federal state North Rhine-Westphalia, now supports it. “Unfortunately, the past days and weeks have shown that there is no consensus among federal states in regard to crucial questions”, Laschet was quoted saying by several German-language media. Sozens of MPs who are part of of the conservative CDU’s fraction at the Berlin Bundestag want to give the federal government the right to enact decrees which would force the states to implement measures designed to fight pandemics like the one the world has been confronted with for 15 months now.

Consensus on Corona Policy

Because of an argument about the Corona policies, the next Corona conference with Angela Merkel and the First Ministers, which was going to take place on Monday, was cancelled today. The Chancellor and some First Ministers had insisted on a “hard lockdown” in all of Germany, because of the third wave that was triggered by the spread of the more contagious Corona mutant B.1.1.7.. Others had rejected the idea. On Friday, a consensus on a change to the Infection Protection Act was announced by the Chancellery, but some federal states disputed it.

At a press conference in Berlin, Minister Spahn talked about the Corona situation. He stated there were far too many new Corona infections. At Germany’s hospitals, the alarming situation was becoming evident, since the number of Corona patients was rising. The third Corona wave needed to be broken as quickly as possible. “This is the only way to avoid an overburdening of the health system”, Spahn stressed. He repeated his demand for a strict lockdown. This was about saving lives, he said. Professor Lothar Wieler, the President of the Robert Koch Institute, said the age of Corona patients who needed to be treated at hospitals was decreasing. Each infection that could pre prevented was a success, Wieler stated.

We have a request: The Berlin Spectator has been online for 27 months. We deliver the most relevant news from Germany along with features about Berlin, culture, people, tourist magnets and other subjects, and we garnish the whole thing with entertainment and other extras. We thank the thousands of readers we have every day.
But we also need support. In order to make ends meet, we require a minimum of 66 Euro per day. In March of 2021, we got 202,50 Euro in total, or 6 Euro per day, meaning we need about eleven times as much as we are getting. Would you consider supporting The Berlin Spectator? You can do so directly via Paypal or you can go to our Donation Page first. Thank you so much.

error: Content is protected !!