Germany ‘in third wave of pandemic’

Germany is in a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers in her conservative party, two sources at the meeting told Reuters yesterday.

“We are now in the third wave,” they quoted her as saying and said she warned that any easing of lockdown measures introduced late last year and extended until March 7 would have to be done carefully and gradually.

The closure of all non-essential businesses and border controls with Austria and the Czech Republic, where there have been outbreaks linked to a more infectious variant of the virus, have helped Germany bring down new daily coronavirus (Covid-19) infections.

But a slow vaccination roll-out and the risk of major outbreaks of fast-spreading variants already identified in Germany could make any easing of restrictions difficult.

“We cannot afford ups and downs,” Merkel told participants, suggesting that she wanted any return to normal life to be done carefully to avoid having to reintroduce lockdown measures if infections start to rise again.

Meanwhile, Scotland will look to begin a “substantial” easing of coronavirus restrictions from April 26, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday as she laid out plans to take the country out of lockdown.

The head of Scotland’s devolved government told lawmakers there were “much brighter times ahead”, adding that restrictions were working well alongside a mass vaccination programme that was “motoring”.

“We can now see a firm way out of this if we all stick together and stick with it,” she added.

The first minister, whose government has devolved powers over health policy, indicated the lifting of restrictions on non-essential business would be more cautious than plans outlined for England by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday.

“From 26th April, assuming the data allows, we will move back to levels with hopefully all of Scotland, that is currently in level four moving to level three,” she said.

“At that stage, we will begin to reopen the economy and society in the more substantial way that we are all longing for,” Sturgeon added, explaining the situation was “extremely positive and promising” but “still quite precarious”.

Johnson on Monday outlined a four-step plan to ease lockdown measures in England, with schools opening again to pupils from March 8, and nonessential retail from April 12.

Sweden is preparing new measures to try to curb a resurgence in Covid-19 cases as the coronavirus strain first detected in Britain spreads rapidly, the architect of Sweden’s pandemic strategy said yesterday.

Sweden has avoided lockdowns throughout the pandemic.

But health statistics agency figures yesterday showed 10,933 new coronavirus cases had been registered since Friday, a rise from 9,458 in the corresponding period the previous week.

“The British variant is increasing very fast,” Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told a news conference. “This variant will with fairly high probability be the dominant one within a few weeks or a month.”

“We have a package (of national measures) being readied that will be presented tomorrow,” he said, giving no details.

The British coronavirus variant is thought by scientists to be a more infectious strain.

Cases of the South African and Brazilian strains have also been detected but are not spreading quickly, Tegnell said.

In Greece, hospital doctors went on a day-long strike yesterday and dozens marched in Athens to protest “suffocating” conditions at hospitals on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.

With around 6,000 deaths, Greece has fared better than much of Europe in containing the pandemic and prevented its health service, battered by years of financial crisis, from collapsing.

But intensive care units at state hospitals are operating at roughly 80% capacity and doctors want the government to create new units for Covid-19 patients instead of using already existing ones, as well as to hire more staff and to use resources from the private sector.