COVID-19: ‘Third wave in Germany has begun’

Germany’s third wave is in full swing, the president of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases (RKI), told the UN Journalists Association in Geneva on Wednesday.

“We have clear signs: The third wave in Germany has already begun,” said Lothar Wieler.

Thursday marks one year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic.

Wieler’s comments came as the RKI recorded 14,356 new infections in the past 24 hours on Thursday, an increase of more than 2,400 over the previous Thursday.

The infection rate also continued to rise, reaching 69.1 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days for Germany as a whole. The infection rate on Wednesday was 65.4.

Wieler described the vaccination drive as a race against the mutating virus, but was hopeful that 80% of the population could become immune to coronavirus by fall. Until then he considered continued hygiene measures to be necessary.