German intensive care doctors call for two-week hard lockdown

Germany’s intensive care doctors warned that the only way to avoid overwhelming hospitals as the country grapples with a third wave of coronavirus infections is a two-week hard lockdown.

A mix of hard lockdown, vaccinations and testing is necessary to “prevent intensive care units from being overflowed,” the head of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, Christian Karagiannidis, told the Rheinischen Post daily.

He called on politicians to put an immediate stop to any planned openings in light of the rapidly rising case numbers. “I ask politicians not to abandon hospital staff,” added Karagiannidis.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control on Saturday reported its highest seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants since mid-January: 124.9. The day before, it had stood at 119,1.

Confusion over Berlin’s coronavirus containment strategy has caused discord among the premiers of Germany’s 16 federal states, some of whom are refusing to go along with a plan to return to a harder lockdown in areas where the infection rate remains comparatively low.

A recent poll, however, showed that more people were again in favour of tightening measures rather than loosening them. According to a poll by the broadcaster ZDF, 36 per cent want to tighten measures while 31 per cent wants to maintain the current restrictions.

Only a quarter of respondents said they wanted to relax measures.

Source: GNA