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German Covid Cases Hit New High After Merkel Warning

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BM.GE
18.11.21 17:00
506
Germany reported its highest single day surge of Covid-19 infections as Chancellor Angela Merkel said the "dramatic" situation was the result of the fourth wave "hitting our country with full force."
 
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's disease and control center, has reported 65,371 new cases within the last 24 hours -- it is an increase of 12,545 new infections compared to the previous 24-hour period.
 
But these figures are likely to be under reported, and true scale of infections could be "twice or three times as many," RKI chief Lothar Wieler told an online discussion with Saxony's state premier Michael Kretschmer on Wednesday evening.
 
The country reported 264 Covid-19 related deaths from Wednesday to Thursday, pushing the total number of deaths since the pandemic began to 98,000 people in Germany, according to RKI data.
 
Germany's seven-day incidence rate also hit record levels of 336.9 cases per 100,000 people, up from 249.1 cases reported a week ago, RKI reported.
 
Germany has one of the lowest vaccination rates in western Europe, with just over 67% of the population fully vaccinated. Around 33% have no protection against the virus, according to the RKI.
 
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This is one of the reasons why infections have soared to record levels, say experts, aided by waning immunity of the Covid-19 vaccines and the more infectious Delta variant.
 
"As the vaccination campaign started in Germany at the beginning of this year, we now see some age groups and some people lose their immunity against Covid-19 quickly,'' Tobias Kurth, a professor of public health and epidemiology at the Charité university hospital in Berlin, told CNN.
 
''The current pandemic situation in Germany is dramatic, I can't say it any other way," outgoing Chancellor Merkel told mayors from across Germany on Wednesday.
 
Hospitalizations and deaths remain at a much lower level than in previous peaks, but there is growing concern about gaps in the country's vaccination coverage as it moves into the winter months.
 
''It would be a disaster to act only when the intensive care units are full, because then it would be too late,'' she added.