BERLIN, Nov. 22 — The intensive care units (ICUs) in some of Germany’s hospitals reached capacity on Monday, with many more nearing it as the country is hit hard by the fourth COVID-19 wave.
The number of coronavirus patients requiring intensive care increased by 170 in the past 24 hours and stood at 3,845 on Monday, according to the online registry of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI).
“The COVID-19 situation is very worrying and not under control at the moment. We are very concerned,” DIVI President Gernot Marx said at a press conference on Monday, stressing that additional measures could be required to curb the fourth coronavirus wave by December.
Germany’s seven-day incidence rate rose to an all-time high of 386.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Monday, up from 303 last week, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.
After the daily number of new infections exceeded 65,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic last week, the RKI registered 30,643 COVID-19 infections on Monday, an increase of over 7,000 cases over last week’s figure.
Although Germany has enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to cover its population, the vaccination rate was still 68 percent on Monday, according to the RKI. While some of the country’s western and northern federal states already boast vaccination rates of 75 percent and more, less than two in three people in Saxony are fully vaccinated.
“Vaccination is key to pandemic response — including booster vaccination,” Marx stressed, calling for additional mobile vaccination teams and vaccination centers to reopen and appealing to the population to “take personal responsibility” and to continue to follow the COVID-19 rules. (Xinhua)
German hospitals running out of ICU beds as COVID-19 continues to bite
