BERLIN (Dispatches) - One of Germany’s top virologists has warned that a further 100,000 people will die from COVID if nothing’s done to halt an aggressive fourth wave. Case numbers have soared and Germany on Wednesday registered its highest rate of infection since the pandemic began, with almost 40,000 cases in a day.
“We have to act right now,” said Christian Drosten, who described a real emergency situation.
Doctors in the intensive care COVID ward at Leipzig University Hospital warn this fourth wave could be the worst yet.
One patient here, a woman in her 20s, has just given birth. Her baby is fine, but staff say they don’t know whether she’ll survive.
This state of Saxony has the highest seven-day infection rate in Germany at 459 cases per 100,000 people. The national rate is 232.
It also has the lowest take-up of vaccine: 57% of the population here have been immunized.
There are 18 patients on the COVID ward. Just four were vaccinated.
“It’s very difficult to get staff motivated to treat patients now in this fourth wave,” says Prof Sebastian Stehr, who heads the department. “A large part of the population still underestimates the problem.”
By now, Prof Sehr says, most people will know someone who’s had COVID and should, therefore, be aware of the risk of infection. “Nevertheless,” he adds, “we are still seeing so many patients who are not vaccinated.”
Germany’s health minister has publicly blamed those people for the soaring cases, describing the current situation as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”.
At the start of this week, Saxony banned unvaccinated people from bars, restaurants, public events and sport and leisure facilities. At least several other states are expected to follow suit.
Germany’s anti-vaxxers are furious. Several thousand protested last weekend in Leipzig.
Sixteen million Germans over the age of 12 have not been fully vaccinated. The German government has admitted it’s unlikely to persuade many of those people now, and politicians worry that social divisions might deepen.
What many fear is another lockdown. Nadine Herzog’s bar in Leipzig barely survived the last one. She deftly prepares cocktails as she tells us that even before the authorities required it she and her co-owner banned unvaccinated drinkers.