Top health official sounds alarm as Germany counts new Covid record

Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s top disease control official described the situation as “extremely fragile” after the country recorded a new high in coronavirus cases on Thursday, providing further evidence that a partial lockdown has failed to control infection.

Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), said that cases had plateaued for a spell but were now in fact rising further.

Hours earlier, his government health agency reported 23,679 new confirmed cases over a 24-hour period, the highest daily rise seen in Germany so far in the pandemic.

The RKI also said 440 more people had died after contracting the virus, after another grim record was set the previous day with 590 deaths.

The total number of people who have died in Germany in connection with coronavirus now stands at 20,372, and 1,242,203 infections have been counted overall.

Wieler warned that Germany’s caseload risks returning to exponential growth. “We must prevent this,” he said.

The official appealed to people to further reduce their contact with others – a tall order as many families hope to celebrate together over Christmas.

“I can really only ask everyone not to travel over Christmas … and instead move gatherings more online and limit them to small groups,” Wieler said.

Pointing to the United States, Wieler noted that cases had surged there after Thanksgiving.

“I do not want that in Germany and nobody wants that in Germany,” he said.

Local health authorities in Germany have long been unable to track chains of infection due to the sheer number of cases. Meanwhile, intensive care units are filling up and hospitals in some regions are at capacity.

A shutdown that came into effect in early November – forcing the closure of restaurants, bars and leisure facilities, but not schools and shops – is to be prolonged until January 10.

Across Germany, state administrations have generally limited group gatherings to two households and a maximum of five people.

However, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the premiers of the 16 states are expected to meet again in the coming days – possibly this weekend – to discuss further measures amid calls for tougher action.

“The reduction in contact is not sufficient,” Merkel told lawmakers on Wednesday.

In a fiery speech, she took to task restaurants selling mulled wine to take away during the popular advent season, and urged people not to make this Christmas the last one they spend with grandparents.

“We are in a decisive, perhaps the decisive phase of fighting the pandemic,” the chancellor said.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier looked across the border to see how Germany should have responded to its second wave.

“This time France did everything right and achieved impressive successes, while in Germany, unfortunately, the momentum of the second wave has still not been broken,” he said in comments to Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper and France’s Les Echos.

In comments to the Bundestag parliament, Health Minister Jens Spahn called for “winding down society” over the New Year period, but stressed that this did not mean “that until then people can still go all out.”

Germany is currently experiencing “the worst of three worlds”: high infection rates, the multibillion-euro cost of keeping businesses afloat, as well as “a fatigue among many citizens.”

Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller already proposed the closure of shops and sending school pupils home, either for an extended Christmas break or with the resumption of remote learning.

When such measures would come into place remains unclear. Mueller is to present his plan to Berlin’s state government on Tuesday.

Markus Soeder, premier of the southern state of Bavaria, suggested a similar lockdown. It would kick in immediately after Christmas and last “as long as it takes,” he told dpa.

Saxony in eastern Germany, once relatively unscathed in the pandemic but now the country’s worst-affected state, has already announced that schools, kindergartens and non-essential shops are to close from Monday.