Germany Braces For Difficult Weeks As Omicron Spreads - Health Minister

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2022) Germany has difficult weeks ahead and may require tougher COVID-19 rules to overcome the rising wave of the now dominant Omicron variant, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said.

"We in Germany face very difficult weeks. We have a relatively old population with many chronic diseases... Together with reluctance to get vaccinated this poses a serious risk," he told the Bild am Sonntag weekly in an interview out Sunday.

As of Saturday, 75% of Germans have received one dose of an anti-coronavirus vaccine, 72.6% have had two, and 46.6% have had three. The Federal government wants to have 80% vaccinated with at least one dose by the end of January.

Lauterbach said a "hardcore group" of anti-vaxxers were slowing down the vaccine rollout.

He said that without a vaccine mandate Germany would never meet the vaccination targets that would allow it to overcome the pandemic.

The German government has all but banned unvaccinated people from public life, allowing only those fully vaccinated or recently recovered to go to public venues.

Lauterbach said regional and federal authorities will review the existing COVID-19 restrictions at their next conference on January 24. If the number of infections continues to rise, he said, tougher measures could be considered.

Asked whether there was anything left to limit, the minister said he banked on promoting booster vaccines. He ruled out another lockdown and school closures, saying children had had enough of them.