(Dan Tri) – Once highly appreciated for its ability to respond to the epidemic, Germany is facing the worst wave of Covid-19 ever and this could be repeated anywhere in Europe.
Germany is facing the fourth wave of Covid-19 (Photo: AFP).
Germany in the midst of the Covid-19 `storm`.
In recent days, Germany has continuously recorded sad records in the fight to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The situation at hospitals in Germany is also starting to become more tense.
Germany’s leading epidemiologist Christian Drosten warned that if more action is not taken to prevent the outbreak from getting out of control, Germany could record 100,000 more deaths from Covid-19 in the next few months.
`With two-thirds of the population vaccinated, this may sound strange, but in reality it is not surprising,` said Ralf Reintjes, an epidemiologist at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg
Germany has fully vaccinated 67% of the adult population with the Covid-19 vaccine, meaning that 1/3 of the adult population is still unvaccinated, many of whom have underlying health conditions that make them susceptible to serious complications if infected with Covid-19.
In addition to unvaccinated people, another concern is those who received the first vaccination from around the end of 2020 to early 2021. `For these people, the effectiveness of the second vaccination, administered 6 months ago,
Furthermore, Mr. Reintjes said, the virus has mutated, and the situation in Germany shows that the Delta variant is much more contagious than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, even in vaccinated people.
Lessons for Europe and the world
Along with promoting vaccination, experts say that people should not relax epidemic prevention measures (Illustration: AP).
France24 news agency quoted experts as saying that the biggest lesson from the 4th wave of Covid-19 in Germany is that people expect too much from vaccines, leading to lax epidemic prevention such as testing and travel restrictions.
`With such a variant, nearly 70% of the adult population being vaccinated is too small a number to prevent the epidemic,` said Till Koch, an epidemiologist at the Hamburg University Center.
This expert believes that what is happening in Germany risks repeating itself in much of Europe in the coming weeks.
Mr. Koch said, it was no coincidence that Northern Europe suffered the first new wave of Covid-19.
`The key thing for governments is to let everyone understand that the epidemic is still there and not to relax epidemic prevention measures, especially this winter,` expert Reintjes emphasized.
According to experts, along with continuing to increase vaccine coverage, countries need to pay more attention to epidemic prevention measures.