04:44Germany: Robert Koch Institute sounds the alarm as COVID cases reach record highs
The head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) sounded the alarm on "large spike in infections" during a press conference in Berlin, on Thursday, as the number of new confirmed cases in the country exceeded 10,000 for the first time on Wednesday.
"Although we are testing a lot, and we are testing on average a million people per week so that is quite a lot, the numbers of positive cases are continuously spiking, said RKI President Lothar Wieler. "We are noticing a large spike in infections in the private surrounding, where we are too close to each other. In order to get infected in a private surrounding, the virus needs to, first of all, reach the household."
He called on Germans to observe so-called 'AHA' rules (Distance, Hygiene, daily use of masks and ventilation), sustaining it would "contribute a lot to prevent the spreading of the infection."
The RKI president also said the herd immunity strategy endorsed by some countries to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, has failed.
"This concept has been partly tried out in some countries and it failed. There's nobody that seriously considers the further pursuing of a herd immunity principle," the RKI chief said adding that Germany performs an average of one million tests weekly, and the amount of positive cases is 'continuously spiking.'
"The courses of illness would be so severe, if out of 80 million Germans, when all of them or 70 percent of them would get infected, then around 50-60 million Germans would end up infected. And if we would compare these numbers with the ones we currently have, which is that from 380,000-400,000 infected, we had around 10,000 dead so far, then we could calculate what that would mean. The number of infected and dead people would be very high. That is out of the question," he explained.
As of Thursday, Germany has reported over 400,000 confirmed cases and 9,921 deaths with the virus.
04:44The head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) sounded the alarm on "large spike in infections" during a press conference in Berlin, on Thursday, as the number of new confirmed cases in the country exceeded 10,000 for the first time on Wednesday.
"Although we are testing a lot, and we are testing on average a million people per week so that is quite a lot, the numbers of positive cases are continuously spiking, said RKI President Lothar Wieler. "We are noticing a large spike in infections in the private surrounding, where we are too close to each other. In order to get infected in a private surrounding, the virus needs to, first of all, reach the household."
He called on Germans to observe so-called 'AHA' rules (Distance, Hygiene, daily use of masks and ventilation), sustaining it would "contribute a lot to prevent the spreading of the infection."
The RKI president also said the herd immunity strategy endorsed by some countries to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, has failed.
"This concept has been partly tried out in some countries and it failed. There's nobody that seriously considers the further pursuing of a herd immunity principle," the RKI chief said adding that Germany performs an average of one million tests weekly, and the amount of positive cases is 'continuously spiking.'
"The courses of illness would be so severe, if out of 80 million Germans, when all of them or 70 percent of them would get infected, then around 50-60 million Germans would end up infected. And if we would compare these numbers with the ones we currently have, which is that from 380,000-400,000 infected, we had around 10,000 dead so far, then we could calculate what that would mean. The number of infected and dead people would be very high. That is out of the question," he explained.
As of Thursday, Germany has reported over 400,000 confirmed cases and 9,921 deaths with the virus.