Prime Ministers of German federal states want action to be taken now to prevent a lockdown and an overload of hospital care. The number of coronavirus infections is rising rapidly in the country, and more and more corona patients are being admitted to hospitals.
“If we take too much time now, we will end up in a lockdown like last year,” Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer of Saxony told radio Deutschlandfunk. Germany reported a record number of infections for the second day in a row on Friday. 37,120 new cases were reported to health authorities within 24 hours.
Thuringia Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow believes it is only a matter of time before there are no more beds in intensive care units of the hospitals. On Thursday, about 2,500 beds were still available in those departments. According to figures from an organization for IC care, at the beginning of October, there were still about 3100.
The health ministers of the sixteen federal states have been discussing the corona situation since Thursday. They will state the strategy for the winter on Friday. German media already announced on Thursday that all vaccinated people could receive an extra shot. The so-called booster will first be available to risk groups and then to all other interested parties.
