Germany braced for winter wave of infections

Covid on the rise in eastern Europe with Latvia about to go into lockdown and cases surging elsewhere

CORONAVIRUS cases in Germany have risen by 70 per cent in a week amid signs it is following the UK into a winter Covid crisis.

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health body, reported 19,752 new infections yesterday, the highest figure since May, as scientists warned that the country was heading for a “difficult” autumn wave.

The situation is critical in a number of eastern European countries too, with Latvia heading back into lockdown and a surge in cases in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Ukraine.

Germany’s case numbers still lag the UK, which saw 51,484 cases reported on Thursday.

There were 157 cases per million in Germany reported yesterday, compared with 681 in the UK.

Comprehensive vaccination in both countries are ensuring that hospitalisations and deaths are not spiking in the same way as in previous waves.

There are 1,540 Covid patients in intensive care in Germany, up from 1,300 at the beginning of the month. Of these, 850 are on ventilators; a similar number to the UK, where 872 patients are in ventilator beds. “The actual 4th wave has now started and is still picking up speed,” Prof Christian Karagiannidis, president of the German Society of Medical Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, added.

Germany has fully vaccinated 69 per cent of its population, behind the UK, which has reached 79 per cent.

Despite the surge, there is an ongoing debate in the country about whether it is time to lift the remaining coronavirus restrictions – face masks remain mandatory in many settings and vaccine passports are widely required. Health minister Jens Spahn said earlier this week that the state of emergency, in place since March last year, could end in November, but regional leaders have urged caution in the face of rising cases.

Bavarian premier Markus Söder said on Thursday that lifting restrictions would leave the country “defenceless”.

Doctors also said that the rising case numbers could test the country’s health service in the months ahead.

Stefan Kluge, director of the clinic for intensive care at the University Hospital Hamburg-eppendorf, told the German news channel Taggeschau that the “foreseeable difficult autumn and winter wave” of Covid, alongside a rise in other infections such as influenza, could push intensive care “once again to and beyond its limits”.

Similar fears in Latvia pushed the government into declaring a lockdown on Wednesday this week, the first country

‘A difficult autumn and winter wave of Covid … could push intensive care again to beyond its limits’

in Europe to reintroduce the measure in the face of the gathering winter Covid storm. Countries across central and eastern Europe – many of which have significantly lower vaccination rates than the UK and Germany, and face widespread vaccine hesitancy – are facing spiralling cases and deaths.

Ukraine reported record infections and deaths yesterday with 23,785 new cases and 612 deaths.

Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria are also reporting rising cases and deaths, with hospitals coming under intense pressure, and Russia signalled earlier this week that a new full lockdown could be introduced in Moscow if the situation does not improve.

According to the World Health Organisation, Europe saw a 7 per cent rise in cases in the last week – the only region in the world where infections are currently increasing.