The US State Department warned Americans Monday not to travel to Germany due to the “very high level of COVID-19 in the country.”
The advisory came after fresh advice from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Avoid travel to Germany. If you must travel to Germany, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel,” the CDC warned.
“Because of the current situation in Germany, even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants,” it added.
Denmark, Belgium, Croatia, Hungary, Austria and the Netherlands have also been issued with the CDC’s highest Level 4 warning.
How bad is the current COVID situation in Germany?
Germany, the EU’s most populous nation, is currently grappling with its fourth, and most severe, wave of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, 45,326 new cases were reported, an increase of almost 13,000 a week ago. The seven-day incidence rate hit a record of 399.8 new infections per 100,000 people.
Intensive care units are filling up with COVID-19 patients at a rate German hospitals have never seen before, not even in 2020.
The latest surge has been blamed on a sluggish vaccine uptake. Only 68% of the country’s population is fully vaccinated.
‘Vaccinated, recovered or dead’
Health Minister Jens Spahn made a bleak remark on the course of the pandemic on Monday, as he urged people not to be too picky about the vaccines.
“Probably, by the end of this winter, as is sometimes cynically said, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead,” he told reporters.
However, Hendrik Streeck, one of the country’s top virologists, told DW in an interview that he disagreed with the comment.
“While I agree that the situation is serious right now … I don’t agree with the sentence that everyone after this fall or winter ‘will be either vaccinated, recovered or dead,’ Streeck, a professor and director of the Institute of Virology at the University of Bonn, said.
“That would mean that everyone will come into contact with the virus this winter,” he said, adding that was not how it works.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
Tragic number
A man in a cemetery in Bonn mourns his dead wife — one of the 100,000 people in Germany who have died of COVID-19. Over the past few weeks, the number of those dying of and with the virus has risen daily. On October 1, it was 66. On November 18, the Robert Koch Institute recorded 201 such deaths.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
Final warning
Coffins are lined up in front of a crematorium oven. On one of the lids an undertaker has written “Corona” in chalk — a warning to the people who work there. The elderly and the unvaccinated are still most at risk of dying of the virus, but there are more and more breakthrough infections.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
Fears for the elderly…
A care assistant tests the residents of a retirement home on the outskirts of Berlin. In recent weeks, there have been numerous outbreaks of COVID-19 in care homes and old people’s homes in which residents have died. This is one reason why mandatory vaccination for health-care workers is currently being considered. Italy, France and Greece already have it, and Austria will soon follow suit.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
…and for the young
Self-testing in kindergartens and schools is now routine for children. No other population group is tested as regularly and extensively for COVID-19. Yet the incidence among five- to 14-year-olds is up to three times higher than average. This is why many parents are hoping that COVID vaccines will be approved for children. The European Medicines Agency will make a decision at the end of the week.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
ICUs are full
A doctor treats a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit of the university hospital in Leipzig. Hospitalization rates — the number of people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 — have not yet reached the highest levels of last December, but staff are already sounding the alarm and warning that hospitals are overstretched.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
Longer stays
A COVID-19 patient with venous access lines and a tracheostomy sits in the intensive care unit of Dresden’s municipal hospital. Using hospitalization rates as an incidence value is controversial: They show the incidence of infection, but only with a delay. Also, many COVID patients are younger than in previous waves. They spend longer in intensive care, meaning beds are not freed up as quickly.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
Virus along for the ride
Hamburg station is packed with passengers. Since last week, new rule applies in trains, trams and buses: Only those who have been vaccinated, tested negative, or have recently recovered from infection can use them. Drivers and on-board personnel are supposed to enforce this, but can only really do spot-checks. Mask-wearing is still mandatory; those who don’t comply face fines of up to €150.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
My home is my office
Anyone who doesn’t absolutely have to commute to work should therefore stay at home. The working-from-home requirement only ended in Germany in June. Now it’s back. With infection rates spiraling, reducing contacts has to take precedence. Wherever possible, workplaces have been relocated back to the home — to the kitchen table, or the sofa.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
Lebkuchen or lockdown?
Christmas markets are starting to open in German towns, although many, like this one in Freiburg, have strict access rules and limited visitor numbers. However, the state of Bavaria has responded to the extremely high infection rates by clamping down. Municipalities with a seven-day incidence of more than 1,000 must go into lockdown, and their Christmas markets must also remain closed.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
Drive-through vaccination
Because the vaccination rate is faltering, the German government intends to focus once again on low-threshold vaccination incentives, like vaccination drive-ins and mobile vaccination teams. It also wants to push ahead as fast as possible with the third, booster vaccination — to “winter-proof” Germany’s population, as Olaf Scholz, the presumed chancellor-elect, has said.
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Germany: Caught by the fourth wave
Open wide…
Given the increasing number of breakthrough infections, and the decline in vaccination protection after six months, it seems that this is sorely needed. The only other thing that will help is systematic testing. For just one month, from October 11 to November 11, people were required to pay for tests, but these are now free again — irrespective of vaccination status.
Author: Thomas Latschan
Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said current measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 were insufficient to tame a vicious fourth wave of infections.
“We have a highly dramatic situation — the current rules are not enough,” Merkel was reported to have told a meeting of leaders of her conservative Christian Democrats on Monday.
US lifted travel curbs
Earlier this month, the United States reopened its borders after more than a year-and-a-half of international travel restrictions.
The Biden administration further announced details on how the US plans to reopen with new guidelines on international travel.
Beginning November 8, “non-citizen, non-immigrant air travelers to the US will be required to be fully vaccinated” and must provide proof of their status prior to boarding, “with only limited exceptions,” according to a White House statement.
adi/rt (AFP, dpa)
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