German intensive care doctors ask for 15 days of total closure

The head of the Interdisciplinary Association of Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, Christian Karagiannidis, recommended a mixture of “hard confinement, vaccinations and tests” to try to ease the pressure on the units, and called on politicians to forget about any short-term reopening measures.

The request comes hours after authorities confirmed in their latest daily report – released yesterday – more than 20,400 coronavirus cases and about 157 deaths, bringing the totals to 2.7 million and 75,780, respectively.

El Instituto Robert Koch, el ente gubernamental encargado del control de enfermedades infecciosas, informed además that the tasa de incidencia acumulada durante los últimos siete días es de 124.9 casos por cada 100,000 inhabitants a siete días, por encima de los 119.1 del the day before.

In addition, he specifies that there are more than 100,000 active cases, according to the press agency Europa Press.

Confusion over the central government’s coronavirus containment strategy in Berlin has sowed discord among senior ministers in Germany’s 16 federal states, some refuse to agree to a plan to return to tighter lockdown in areas where the infection rate remains comparatively low.

However, a recent survey found that a majority of Germans are in favor of tougher measures rather than easing.

According to a survey by the ZDF station, 36% want to tighten the measures while 31% want to maintain the current restrictions.

Only a quarter of respondents were in favor of relaxing the measures.

The German authorities had agreed that between April 1 and 5, the current restrictions which apply in principle until April 18 would be further tightened.

However, the day after her announcement, Chancellor Angela Merkel backed down on criticism received in recent hours for the lack of clarity and the consequences of the plan.

“Un error debe llamarse error y, sobre todo, debe corregirse y, si es posible, a tiempo. Sé que esta propuesta causó una uncertidumbre adicional, lo lamento profundamente y por ello pido el perdón de todos los ciudadanos”, dijo la canciller en a speech.