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Workers dismantle Christmas market a booth in Munich
Workers dismantle a booth in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, which, like Saxony, has cancelled its Christmas markets to help control Covid-19. Photograph: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images
Workers dismantle a booth in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, which, like Saxony, has cancelled its Christmas markets to help control Covid-19. Photograph: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images

Most Germans to be ‘vaccinated, cured or dead’ within months, says minister

This article is more than 2 years old

Jens Spahn issues stark warning as neighbouring Austria implements contentious new Covid lockdown

Most Germans will be “vaccinated, cured or dead” from Covid-19 in a few months, the country’s health minister has warned, as Germany’s southern neighbour Austria put its population of 8.9 million back under a nationwide lockdown.

As intensive care units near capacity and hospitals contend with a shortage of staff and respiratory apparatus, doctors have said they are ready to apply a triage system that would prioritise care for patients judged to have the best chance of survival.

“Probably by the end of the winter, more or less everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, cured or dead,” the health minister, Jens Spahn, said. “That sounds cynical, but that is the reality.”

Spahn said the highly contagious Delta variant made his prediction very probable and that was why the government was so urgently recommending vaccination.

The outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, told leaders of her conservative party that measures being taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus were insufficient and that stronger action needed to be taken. “We are in a highly dramatic situation. What is in place now is not sufficient,” she told CDU leaders in a meeting, according to Reuters.

In Austria, the seven-day Covid incidence rate has hit a record 1,107 in every 100,000 people and more than 3,000 patients are reportedly in hospital with Covid. In Germany the figure is 409.2, and the UK’s is 422.7.

Cases in Germany

Under the terms of its lockdown, people are only allowed to leave home to go to work, shop for essentials and exercise. Schools are open but parents have been urged to keep their children at home wherever possible. Working from home is also recommended. Austria is also imposing a sweeping vaccine mandate from 1 February – joining the Vatican as the only places in Europe with such a requirement.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday to protest over the measures, some blaming the government for not doing more to avert the latest coronavirus wave crashing into Europe.

Across Germany, a variety of measures have been introduced at the regional level to try to curb the spread of the virus, such as excluding unvaccinated people or those without antibodies from non-essential facilities and public spaces.

In the worst-hit regions of Bavaria and Saxony, authorities have ordered bars and clubs to shut and Christmas markets, which were due to open this week, have been cancelled. But Merkel said neither those measures nor a higher uptake of vaccinations would be enough to halt the rapid rise of infections in the short run. She called on Germany’s 16 federal states to decide on tough measures by Wednesday.

The possibility of reintroducing a national lockdown in Germany has not been ruled out. A debate over whether or not to introduce a vaccine mandate is also in full flow.

Karl Lauterbach, a Social Democrat MP, called for a “radical” application of rules requiring people to present vaccination or recovery certificates to access some shops and public places. “A general vaccine mandate [shouldn’t be] taboo either,” he wrote on Twitter.

Lothar Wieler, the head of the disease control agency the Robert Koch Institute, described a mandate as a “measure of last resort” but did not rule out recommending one. A spokesperson for the outgoing government said it would leave the decision to the incoming administration.

Last week, the leaders of Germany’s 16 regional states agreed they wanted a law requiring health workers and those working with elderly and vulnerable people to get Covid vaccines.

About 68% of Germans and 66% of Austrians are fully vaccinated, which virologists and epidemiologists agree is not high enough to keep the pandemic under control.

Spahn made his blunt remark after he had been forced to defend his decision to call on the nation’s doctors to use up existing stocks of the Moderna vaccine before it expired, despite patients’ overwhelming preference for the BioNTech/Pfizer jab, which was developed in Germany.

Doctors administering booster shots have reported that some patients turned down the Moderna jabs, fearing they were of inferior quality or would offer less protection if their first jab had been of BioNTech/Pfizer. Spahn said both vaccines worked well and stressed there was no shortage of vaccines.

“Some vaccinating doctors say BioNTech is the Mercedes of the vaccines and Moderna is the Rolls-Royce,” he said. Both use the same core mRNA technology.

He was backed up by Klaus Cichutek, president of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, the government regulatory body for vaccines, who said Germans failed to recognise how lucky they were. “We’re living here in paradise,” he said. “There are enough vaccines, and they are safe and effective … It’s not proportionate to be fighting about which mRNA vaccine should be used. The message of the moment is far more that everyone should get vaccinated.”

Austria’s chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, has scheduled 20 days for the lockdown, with an evaluation after 10 days.

Rows have erupted between scientists and politicians in Austria and Germany. Markus Söder, the leader of Bavaria, criticised scientists for failing to warn of the severity of the situation. Leading scientists have hit back, saying they never ceased to emphasise how the pandemic was likely to escalate without mass immunisation.

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