Covid restrictions : Boris Johnson quizzed on wearing facemasks
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On Friday, the nation’s public health body reported 19752 new coronavirus infections. This took it to its highest figures since May, leading to stark warnings by scientists as the country prepares for a “difficult” autumn wave. But this still lags behind UK figures, with 51,484 cases reported in Britain on Thursday.
Other EU countries are also being hit by soaring case numbers, with Latvia reverting to another lockdown. Surging cases are also reported in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and the Ukraine.
Britain and Germany are banking on promising vaccination programmes to prevent surging deaths and hospitalisations, but German doctors warned on Friday there is still a “close correlation” between cases and patients requiring intensive care.
Right now, there are 1,540 Covid patients in intensive care in Germany, up from 1,300 at the beginning of the month.
Of those, 850 patients have been put on ventilators.
But the UK’s figure is only slightly above Germany, with 872 patients on ventilators at this current time.
Christian Karagiannidis, president of the German Society of Medical Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, warned: “The actual fourth wave has now started and is still picking up speed.”
While the UK has fully vaccinated an impressive 79 percent of the population, Germany is lagging behind at 69 percent.
Earlier this week, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the state of emergency – which has gripped Germany since March last year – could end in November.
But regional leaders have urged health chiefs to approach removing these restrictions with the utmost caution amid soaring cases of the virus.
Markus Soeder, Bavarian premier, said on Thursday lifting restrictions would leave the country “defenceless”.
Doctors have also warned Germany’s health services could be put under immense pressure as the virus tightens its grip on the country.
Stefan Kluge, director of the clinic for intensive care at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, told German news channel Taggeschau that the “foreseeable difficult autumn and winter wave”, as well as a rise in flu cases, could test the intensive care “once again to and beyond its limits”.
Unlike the UK though, face masks are still mandatory in most settings, and vaccine passports are widely required.
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But this week, scientific advisers to the Government urged ministers to start preparing for the “rapid deployment” of Covid restriction measures, pleading with Westminster to “act now, rather than later”.
Talks of a Plan B to curb the soaring cases have been addressed as the UK looks set to enter a winter crisis.
Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said last week that home guidance and vaccine certification – elements in the Government’s proposed ‘plan B’ – would “reduce the need for more stringent, disruptive, and longer-lasting measures” in the future.
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