COVID-19 infection in Germany spreading at 'exponential rate', health authorities warn

COVID-19 cases in Germany are increasing at a ‘very clearly exponential rate’, the country’s health officials warned on March 19 as infection from mutation spiraled in the EU's biggest country. Speaking at a press briefing, Lars Schaade, the vice president of Robert Koch Institute for infectious disease said that at the current rate of infection, the situation in the country by Easter would be no different from that of late December. The statement comes as chancellor Angela Merkel said that she would hold a ministerial meeting next week to revise the country's lockdown rules. 

"It is very possible that we will have a similar situation over Easter to the one we had before Christmas, with very high case numbers, many severe cases, and deaths, and hospitals that are overwhelmed," the vice president of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases, Lars Schaade, told reporters. 

COVID-19 in Germany

As per the reports by Robert Koch Institute, the country has recorded 2,639,258 cases and 74,406  fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic. On March 19, the country reported  17,482 new infections in the previous 24 hours and 226 deaths with the seven-day incidence rate soaring to 96 per 100,000 people despite a months-long shutdown of large swaths of public life.

Meanwhile, the country has ended the temporary suspension of AstraZeneca shots with the health ministry asserting that country would resume the vaccine rollout starting March 19. Addressing a press briefing, meanwhile, health minister Jens Spahn suspending the vaccine out of caution had been the right call "until the clustering of this very rare type of thrombosis had been examined."

Previously, government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer had said that the move to suspend AstraZeneca shots should be seen as a sign that "trust in our control mechanisms is justified". “That’s why this step could also strengthen trust” in the vaccines, she added. However, with the resumption of vaccine rollout, the country is looking forward to speeding up its otherwise sluggish vaccination drive.