In the wake of record infection figures in Germany, Minister of Health Jens Spahn called for additional measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic during a press conference on Friday.
Daily infections stayed near the 50,000-mark which was exceeded for the first time since the pandemic on Thursday. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 48,640 new COVID-19 cases on Friday.
Germany now has to “do everything necessary to break this momentum,” said Spahn. “Otherwise, it will be a bitter December for the entire country.”
The seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate kept rising to new record levels and reached 263.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Friday, compared with 169.9 a week ago, according to the RKI.
“If we want to break the fourth wave, we have to act more decisively,” said Spahn, suggesting the introduction of so-called 2G Plus for public events, which means that vaccinated and recovered people would have to present a negative test in order to attend an event.
According to the German Intensive Care Availability Register (DIVI), the number of COVID-19 patients requiring treatment in intensive care units (ICUs) reached 2,863 on Friday, but still below the peak of around 5,700 during the height of the second wave last year.
