“From the data that we now have, and with the British variant prevailing, we strongly advocate going into lockdown immediately to prevent a strong third wave,” the head of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine said.

Christian Karagiannidis told public broadcaster rbb that he sincerely hoped that the German government would enforce an emergency brake if the incidence rate should rise to more than 100 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over the space of a week.

“Otherwise we would see 5,000 or 6,000 patients in the intensive care unit again,” Karagiannidis said. “If we give the virus the opportunity to spread we will very quickly find ourselves with increasing numbers in intensive care.”

On Monday, 6,604 new coronavirus cases were registered across Germany, around 1,600 more than a week ago. The incidence value rose from 79 to 82.9. The number of deaths as a result of Covid-19 rose by 47 to 73,418.