Germany’s coronavirus cases rose by the most in two months and the contagion rate inched closer to a critical threshold, days before Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts talks to decide on the government’s lockdown strategy. The number of new cases jumped by 28,489 in the 24 hours through Friday morning, the most since Jan. 21, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The country’s seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 people climbed to 95.6, the highest in more than a month and close to the threshold at which Merkel and regional officials agreed to reimpose restrictions.
Under the government’s current lockdown guidelines, curbs should be reinstated if the local incidence rate rises above 100 for three consecutive days, although several cities and regions have chosen to disregard the so-called “emergency brake” in recent days.
“We are in the third wave of the pandemic,” Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a news conference in Berlin. “The numbers are rising, the share of mutations is large and there are some fairly challenging weeks ahead of us,” he said, adding that there isn’t enough vaccine supply in Europe at the moment to stop the “third wave.”
The surge in infections comes as Germany joined other European countries in resuming the use of AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine. The European Union’s drug regulator on Thursday confirmed its view that the shot is safe and the benefits outweigh the risks.
Merkel and regional state leaders are due to meet Monday to decide on the next steps in the fight against the pandemic. Germany’s remaining lockdown restrictions — including the closing of non-essential stores, hotels, restaurants and gyms, as well as cultural venues — are due to expire on March 28.
The number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in Germany has remained stubbornly high in recent weeks and the incidence rate has steadily risen. That raises the prospect of a planned cautious lifting of curbs being postponed and the current restrictions extended into April.
Karl Lauterbach, a lawmaker for the ruling Social Democrats who is a trained epidemiologist, said the recent rise in cases makes stricter curbs inevitable. “It doesn’t make any sense to wait” before imposing a harsher lockdown, Lauterbach said at the news conference alongside Spahn.
He urged Germans to avoid travel over the Easter vacation, saying it would inevitably “fire the third wave” and make it much harder to get the virus under control.
”We already are seeing exponential growth,” Lauterbach said, adding that he expects a dou