Germany warns of ‘terrible Xmas’ as Covid cases go up

Berlin, November 18

The head of Germany’s disease control agency has warned that the country faces a “really terrible Christmas” unless steps are taken to counter the sharp rise in Covid infections.

Lawmakers were debating measures on Thursday that would replace the nationwide epidemic rules, which will expire by month-end.

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Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control agency, said 65,371 newly confirmed cases had been reported in a single day, continuing the upward trend that experts have been warning about for weeks. “We are currently heading toward a serious emergency,” the agency’s director, Lothar Wieler, said. “We are going to have a really terrible Christmas if we don’t take countermeasures now.” Wieler said Germany needed to increase its vaccination rates to significantly above 75 per cent, from 67.7 per cent at present. Some regions in Germany have vaccination rates as low as 57.6 per cent.

He also called for the closure of clubs and bars, an end to large-scale events and access to many parts of public life to be limited to those with vaccine or recovery certificates. — AP

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