The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) has called on the government to urgently implement a two-week Covid-19 lockdown, as the country’s health systems risk hitting capacity.
Speaking to the Rheinische Post, the scientific head of the DIVI, Christian Karagiannidis, warned that if the current rate of admission to intensive care units continues, Germany “will reach the regular capacity limit in less than four weeks.”
Alongside the DIVI’s demand for at least a two-week lockdown, Karagiannidis called on the government to introduce compulsory coronavirus tests in schools twice a week, and speed up the vaccine rollout in vaccination centers and GP practices.
The DIVI’s call comes after Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek told German TV that his region would consider compulsory testing after not enough school students and teachers got voluntarily tested.
The federal German government has been coming under increasing pressure to take steps to speed up the vaccine rollout and take stricter measures to contain the virus as infection rates continue to rise.
With Germany being part of the European Union’s vaccine rollout scheme, the country has suffered from the delays the bloc has experienced despite having domestically developed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested that, in response to the situation across the country, she is considering federalizing the country’s Covid-19 response to allow her administration to overrule states that fail to take necessary steps and introduce restrictions.
Since the start of the pandemic, Germany has recorded 2.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 76,342 fatalities, with the nation battling to contain a third wave of the disease that’s spreading across Europe.
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