Several German political leaders called on Sunday (28) for tighter restrictions to contain an increase in Covid-19 cases amid the new record in the rate of infections and fears about the new variant Ômicron.
After the detection of two cases of the Ômicron lineage in the state of Bavaria, in the south of the country, on Saturday (27), a state official in Hesse said a suspicious case had been confirmed in a passenger arriving from South Africa.
“The sequencing confirmed the result – the suspected case that was made public yesterday morning is the Ômicron variant,” said Kai Klose, Hesse’s minister of social affairs, in a statement. Publication no Twitter.
Restrictions on air travel from South Africa went into effect on Sunday in Germany, after the country was classified as an area with the virus variant.
This means that airlines can only ship Germans from South Africa to Germany and even those who are vaccinated must spend 14 days in quarantine.
The new strain has raised alarm in Germany which, like many other European countries, is struggling to contain a fourth wave of the pandemic.
The country registered 44,401 new cases this Sunday, according to the Robert Koch Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the 7-day incidence hit a record 446.7 per 100,000 population.
More than 100,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Germany since the pandemic began in March 2020.
Bavarian State Prime Minister Markus Soeder called for drastic measures. “Unfortunately, to protect our health care system, we need to slow down our country further,” Soeder told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
The fourth wave comes as conservative Angela Merkel prepares to hand over her chancellorship to a new tripartite coalition to be led by the Social Democrats (SPD), making it harder for her to insist on new restrictions.
It is mainly up to the regions to decide what measures to introduce and a meeting of state leaders with the chancellor is scheduled for 9 December.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said citizens must limit their contacts. He also asked that more people be vaccinated. Only about 68% of the population, of approximately 83 million people, is fully vaccinated.
(Por Madeline Chambers)
Reference: CNN Brasil
