Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) expects several hundred thousand new corona infections a day by mid-February. With a view to realistic scenarios, it can be assumed “that the wave will peak around mid-February and that we will then have to expect several hundred thousand cases a day,” said Lauterbach on Wednesday evening in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz”. It is not said that the scenarios will come regarding, but “they have the greatest probability”.
There are countries that might cope with such numbers with a view to the intensive care units, but the situation in Germany is different. “Since we have a high number of unvaccinated among the elderly in Germany, things can turn out very differently here than in Italy, France or England, for example,” said Lauterbach. In England, for example, the number of unvaccinated people over the age of 50 is one to two percent. “These are values that we cannot reach.”
Regarding the falling hospitalization rate in Germany despite the currently high number of new infections, Lauterbach said that this was an “irrelevant snapshot” because the wave that is currently running in England and France is still coming in Germany. “I would expect the right load in the intensive care units in mid-late February, that’s still a month away and then I hope it will still look good,” said Lauterbach. “That’s going to be the endurance test, not what we’re seeing now.”
