“Pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead,” said health minister, Jens Spahn, issuing a dire warning recently of the scenario that could unfold in the country by the end of this winter. Germany is witnessing spiking daily caseload putting medical facilities under tremendous pressure.
On Wednesday, the country’s 16 federal states were directed by outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel to enforce stricter measures. The government has now enforced the “3G rule” on Germans using public transport or going to offices. 3G means people who are vaccinated, recently recovered, or having recently tested negative for COVID-19.
Several of the German federal states, which individually decide their COVID-19 rules, already had a “2G rule” in place limiting access to public spaces to “geimpft” (vaccinated) and “genesen” (recovered). With the rising number of cases
Further nationwide COVID-19 restrictions will be enforced on the basis of the hospitalization rate in individual federal states, as decided by the German government and federal states.
As stricter rules are enforced, Germany saw record-breaking daily new infections at 66,884 new cases with the highest seven-day incidence rate since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 has claimed nearly 100,000 lives in Germany till date.
Intensive care units in the country are packed to the brim and patients are being forced to move around. Over 90% of the COVID-19 cases in ICU in Germany are unvaccinated people.
Vaccination rate in Germany stands at 68% fully vaccinated people, which is comparably low compared to European standards. The authorities are mulling whether vaccination can be made compulsory.
